Welcome to Design Details, an ongoing editorial feature in Daily Coffee News focused on individual examples of coffee shop architecture, interior design, packaging design or branding. If you are a coffee shop owner, designer or architect and would like to submit your project for consideration, reach our editors here.
Project: Blue Bottle Zhang Yuan Cafe (Blue Bottle website)
Location: W5-1A, 240 North Maoming Road, Jing’an district, Shanghai, China
Size (interior): 175 square meters (1,883 square feet)
Opened: November 2022
Interior design: Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
FF&E design and procurement: Design Republic
Partners-in-charge: Lyndon Neri, Rossana Hu
Associate-in-charge: Qiucheng Li
Design team: Jiaxin Zhang, Xi Chen, Peizheng Zou, Shangyun Zhou, Greg Wu, Luna Hong
Photographer: Zhu Runzi
One of Shanghai’s earliest modern-era public and commercial spaces, Zhang Yuan, reopened last year following a complete rehabilitation of its historic buildings.
Now operating in one of the complex’s 19th century residential structures is a location of Blue Bottle Coffee, which commissioned the Shanghai-based firm Neri&Hu to lead the design.
The shop exists in an 1860s era Shikumen-style building, reflecting a Shainghaiese architectural style that combines both western and Chinese elements.
“Due to historic preservation guidelines, the existing brick walls, doors, and windows of the original architectural facades and atriums are left untouched, and become a continuous backdrop for the insertion of new design elements,” Neri&Hu said in a project description shared with DCN. “A primitive shelter, symbolizing a return to the origin of architecture, is erected in the center of the space; it is where the coffee is prepared and served, and forms the visual and circulatory focal point of the project.”
Along the exterior wall of the existing building, an elongated, alley-like space connects the main street to the atriums. Several benches and small tables spread out along the windows and walls, reflecting the leisurely social moments of life in the Shikumen, according to the firm.
“To contrast with the heavy palette of the existing architecture, Neri&Hu meticulously studied the structure and its tectonic joinery, to make it as light as possible,” the firm stated. “The roof structure is built with brushed stainless steel while the roof surface is made of perforated and bent steel, materials that reflect the surroundings in a subtle and fuzzy manner.”
The design was also inspired by the informal methods by which residents used to extend their private spaces into the alleyways through simple attachments and rods, for something akin to patios.
“The existing structural columns are thus commandeered with added metal rods and small platforms to function as light rails, side tables, benches, and object displays,” Neri&Hu stated.
Upon its opening last year, this was the third Blue Bottle Coffee location in mainland China. Blue Bottle was previously featured in this series for its blue-filled location in Osaka, Japan.
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