A Chinese company has gone where no one has gone before and built its offices in the shape of one of science fiction’s most iconic crafts, the USS Enterprise.
The company in question is NetDragon Websoft, which is based in Changle in China’s south-east Fujian province, and the building is peaking interest now despite being completed back in May of last year.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the building measures 260m long and 100m wide and was given the go-ahead by the company’s founder Liu Dejian, who is something of a massive Star Trek fan, with the company pumping 600m yuan (€88m) into the project.
The company was originally not planning to go with the futuristic spaceship design for the building but, after seeing posters for the show’s ship, they decided to ‘make it so’, with the addition of seven pillars at the building’s base to make it look like it had returned to a space port for repairs.
Satellite image of NetDragon Websoft’s USS Enterprise office via Google Maps
Given the copyright, the company had to reach out to CBS in the US, which own the rights to the franchise, and who on first hearing of the request were more than a little sceptical.
“That was their first time dealing with an issue like this and at first they thought that it was a joke,” NetDragon Websoft said of how the request was received.
“They realised somebody in China actually did want to work out a building modelled on the USS Enterprise only after we sent the relevant legal documents.”
The company are not ones for shying away from strange office furniture either, with a life-sized replica skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex also based within its offices.
USS Enterprise model image via Nathan Rupert/Flickr
