Atelier A has transformed an old residence to a rustic split-level café.
Located near Gulou (the Drum Tower) in central Beijing, the renovated café Oh! retains the historic style of its original building and is modified with modern materials for functional and aesthetic purposes.
The hybrid design philosophy is best embodied in its façade, with half decorated with traditional Chinese grey bricks and wood, and the other half, an ice-cream hut, with light green terrazzo. Such contrast is harmonized under the same tiled roof and wood beam, refreshing but not obtrusive in the surrounding historic quarter.
Fine Café is located in a traditional Hutong area near Gong Wang Fu, a prince’s mansion of the Qing Dynasty. In this renovation project, the architects intend to highlight the contrast between history and modern life, and between traditional Beijing architecture and European style.
Like many old residences in Beijing, the building is dug on ground level, descending about one metre. To take advantage of this extra space, a loft is built to divide the café into a lower space dominated by traditional Chinese style and an upper one by European elements.
5Lmeet is located in a narrow Hutong alleyway within Second Ring Road in Beijing. The project itself was an abandoned soy sauce factory surrounded by the old gray-tiled buildings. It is not far from the historical Duan Qirui Prime Minister’s Office, and next door is the old residents living for decades. 5Lmeet is an innovative space in an old community. Client and design firm worked together to study the social and spatial requirements of activities space to provide design input conditions. Operating team and designers in-depth communication ensured that the project content and future interaction with the perfect combination of space.
Cafés are considered ideal spaces to hold public gatherings, events and conferences. They play an important role in our cities and are often associated with rest and comfort.
Latitude has been entrusted to design a café located in the eastern part of Beijing. With an area of approximately 300 m2, CupOne presents a geometric layout based on the shape of a coffee cup that organizes space both vertically and horizontally. Bordering the walls, there is a running bench that extends in all directions toward the service counter with a rhythm defined by a fluid geometry. The roof follows alongside the sinuous line of the bench, freeing the center to allow greater height and a wider opening of the space, crowned with a lattice formed with triangular shapes. In addition to its functional importance as the main organizer of space, geometry also provides character to the café, through a dialogue between the different levels and directions of the walls: a soft wave that configures different areas, a lyrical rhythm generated by the repetition and alternation of circular geometry.
Article source: ARCHISTRY design & research office
New and old, low-key and high-end, market and comfort, these three pairs of antagonistic words often appear in discussion of design life in old but fast-changing Beijing.
It is nearly 100 years since the Republic of China this building has been standing in the ancient city area of Qianmen Dazhalan in the center of Beijing. This building has changed from a residential building to a spare parts factory, and then to a Mahjong chess and card room. After several transformations, it has changed several times. Now it will be protected and transformed into a speakeasy club.The former orders dismantled the facade of the entrance and then made a metal and glass door in order to let more people in, which makes the building weird in the old hutong area. I went to the local archives to find the files including the pictures and the blueprint of the original construction of the building, knowing its original appearance. The original facade was a typical double-deck multi-arch facade built of stone blocks during the Republic of China. I choose concrete to build a new arch structure and facade, because the old stone materials cannot be found, using the material and the shape to match the history as well as adjusting the form and proportion according to the character of the material controlling the roughness, details and the sense of period. We washed the arch concrete template when the concrete set, and combined as we wish in the facade above the first floor, to make the historical picture of double-deck and multi-arch reappear through modern design and construction. The using of the template decrease the loading for the second floor, which is necessary for the “dangerous building” with nearly 100-year-old block structure. By the meantime, it is smart and environmentally friendly way to save the use of building materials and achieve multi-use of one material. Also this building is one of the few scattered buildings with two floors. People can see the terrace and the human activity in the balcony far away from this Hutong. The entranced facade of the building is protruding from the lane a little, for reducing the abruptness and acuteness of the skyline and rectangular corner of the terrace. I use the wood combined with the comprehensive materials to make the semi-circular box railing ,lighting inside by the circle light. From the lane during the day, we can see soft and elegant outlines and transitions of railings and terraces. At night, we can see the curved halo in the black sky. It illuminates the street and the terrace, adding surreal signs and fun to the dark grey alleys.
The concept rotates around the idea of serving healthy food, providing sophisticated yet informal seating settings with soft chairs, benches and places for gathering, laying down and relaxing with friends.
Green Option is the off-line branch of a well known Chinese company selling salads and healty food online. Main request for the new store was about creating a place that could interpret and reflect the highest company vision and values, clear space, healthy food, meditative environment that may allow customers to detach form urban crowd and noise.
Wu Guanzhen, an emerging artist from China, welcomes the first stop of his 2018-2019 Asian exhibition tour in Beijing Today Art Museum. The building combines industrial heritage with modern design, allowing the artworks to be displayed through a unique aesthetic expression.
In a pure white-toned atmosphere, elaborately arranged lighting hightlights Wu’s 5 series of works, including Weaving Recall, Dunhuang Scroll, Mountain Plan, Daydreaming Land and Microscopic Nature. These works witness his careful interpretation of traditional materials like lacquer and ramie, and also reflect the artist's inner insistence on natural materials and traditional craftsmanship.
Located in the new district of Tongzhou in Beijing, this project is the first step of a large industrial conversion into office and business park. The old factories, property of the Beijing Printing Company in the past now empty, occupy an area of 40,000 sqm. The new master plan includes not only office spaces but also restaurants, cafes, auditorium, outdoor events space among other services.
The project is located at the B2 Floor, Beijing Fun, Beijing Municipality, covering an area of 240 square meters. The client Teawith hopes to create a special fair space for the “New Craftsmen”, where the craftsmen can share their products and various lifestyles. From their points of view, pink is a kind of “free” color which has no labels, has nothing to do with age and is gender-neutral.
Based on this consideration, the architects divide the pink fair into two regions, the cloister-style exhibition area, nesting in center sharing area.
Since 2016, CUN DESIGN has been trying to explore corporate workspace design in a wide range of areas, and so far has completed plenty of offices for companies involved in different fields, including games, new media, culture communication, internet, film and visual technology, real estate development, high-tech R&D, as well as cultural and creative industry, etc.
Based on practices in this regard, we put forward the concept of “Corporate Operation Space” and have been conducting further researches on it.
As AI and intelligent machines constantly advancing and changing our life, we have been seeking for cooperation with companies engaged in this field.
Fortunately, MACQUARIE, a firm dedicated to research and development of robotic arms reached out to us to reimagine its R&D Centre. For us, it was a fantastic opportunity, though accompanied by challenges.
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