Is This Man The World's Biggest Trekkie?

Liu Dejian has created a replica of the Star Trek Enterprise… For his office.

If you think you’re the world’s biggest Trekkie then prepare for a reality check. Chinese game developer Netdragon Websoft has set the benchmark for Star Trek fandom with a new headquarters modelled on the USS Enterprise. Is it nerdy? Of course it is, yet it’s also the coolest thing we’ve seen this year.

Company founder Liu Dejian has invested 600 million yuan ($96 million) turning his idle fantasy into a reality in Fuzhou, Fujian province, which is a significant chunk of his $600 million fortune. The 43-year-old was the 320th richest man in China, but is now substantially poorer.
Described as a ‘big child’ by the Chinese media, Liu developed a passion for Star Trek when he attended the University of Kansas to study chemistry. He stayed in the US for a decade before returning to China to make his fortune as an internet provider and in online gaming.
He sold his smartphone mobile network, 91 Wuxian, to Baidu (China’s answer to Google) for more than $1.5 billion. This has helped him indulge his oddball passions and his office has been described as a playroom filled with Segways, toys and other distractions.
Work commenced on Dejian’s very own Enterprise in 2008 after the Chinese company sought legal permission from the rights holder CBS. It’s the only officially licensed Star Trek replica building in the world, which is something of a landmark and a step in the right direction for a nation that has established a poor reputation for copyright infringement on a corporate level.
“That was their first time dealing with an issue like this and at first they thought it was a joke,” a Netdragon spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal. “They realised it was real only after we sent the relevant legal documents.”.
Aficionados will note that this building is based on the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E, which played a starring role in three films in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Jean-Luc Picard took the helm of the ship and obviously made a major impression on Dejian.
The fun doesn’t stop on the outside: there are 30-foot metal slides that connect the levels as well as Star Trek-style automatic slides and a life-sized replica of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton because, well, why not?
China has succeeded where America failed, on a major level. Los Angeles firm Goddard Group revealed an ambitious plan to build a $150 million replica of the USS Enterprise in Las Vegas in 1992. It was set to become the “eighth wonder of the world,” according to Goddard Group, which sounds a little dramatic even now.
As it was the Star Trek tribute fell through on that occasion and the closest the US has come to an Enterprise all of its own was when Long Island superfan Anthony Sforz spent 1500 man hours creating a homage to the show in his own basement over the course of three years.
Netdragon Websoft’s tribute to Star Trek has been a PR coup, with coverage around the world that has undoubtedly put a smile on man-child Dejian’s face. Other companies have grabbed headlines with their own radical designs, though.
Swedish hosting company Bahnhof went literally underground with its HQ. Setting up in a former Swedish civil defence centre, the company now sits 30m below ground in the White Mountains and the servers lie in underground caves that are contained within a bombproof chamber that is protected by a 40cm thick door. Elsewhere in Sweden, Group 8 uses shipping containers as meeting rooms.
For sheer comedy value, the giant basket that forms the headquarters of the Longaberger Basket Company in Newark, Ohio might just be the weirdest and most wonderful building in the world.
Netdragon Websoft’s USS Enterprise, though, is a worthy addition to the list of the world’s weirdest offices and a nerdy obsession that we can bring a smile to all our faces.