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Chinese design firm Studio 10 has used translucent materials and winding ramps to create a series of abstract spaces to display artefacts at the Fashioned from Nature exhibition at the V&A’s outpost in Shenzhen. More
Milky resin envelops the windows and furniture within this accessories store in Hangzhou, China, designed by local studio Say Architects. More
Chinese architecture Studio PIG Design has created a showroom for the Memphis Milano furniture brand in Hangzhou, China, with interiors designed to make customers “feel the atmosphere of Memphis”. More
Hong Kong architecture studio Cheng Chung Design has created a restaurant and exhibition space within the cavernous interiors of a brick art installation in Mile City, China.The restaurant, named 50% Cloud Artists Lounge, occupies one of several distinctive structures in Dongfengyun Town that evoke a giant cluster of termite mounds.
Cheng Chung Design’s (CCD) interior is deliberately pared-back to retain focus on this unusual building, while also forming a backdrop to the artwork that is exhibited throughout it.
Top image: the restaurant occupies a cavernous brick building. Above: it resembles a giant cluster of termite mounds
“It was to be not only a restaurant but also an art space with an exhibition area,” said CCD’s founder, Joe Cheng.
“It aims to serve as an exhibition hall for various cultures and arts, providing a space for the public to get close to and enjoy art,” he told Dezeen. “You can see original art throughout the entire space.”
The entrance is marked by a curving steel doorway
The brick structure within which the restaurant is located was created by local artist Luo Xu and made without any steel reinforcements or nails.
The interiors of the other buildings in the cluster, also designed by CCD, have been transformed into a multi-functional hall, an art gallery and a hotel.
Steel panels guide visitors inside
CCD marked the entrance to the restaurant by a trail of curving steps that lead to an arched door and a series of curving steel panels.
This is modelled on the nearby Honghe Hani Rice Terraces – a system of historic terraces used to grow rice – and designed to add an “artistic touch” that is complementary to the colours and sinuous form of the building.
The restaurant layout responds to overhead skylights
Inside, the layout of the restaurant’s bar, chairs and tables responds to the curves of the structure and the positions of round openings carved into its roof.
As the walls of the building could not be decorated, this is intended to draw visitors’ attention to the light that filters in through the skylights and onto the bricks and creates patterns throughout the course of the day.
Patterns of light across the brick walls are the focal point
“Light is an essential element in the space,” said CCD. “Guests can experience the change of light in every minute.”
“All design elements are arranged based on light and under skylights. Natural light tells the passage of time throughout the day, and creates diversified spatial experiences,” the studio added.
Woven lampshades help softly filter light
Furniture is kept simple throughout, with cool colours and curved bodies that complement the form of the building.
Cavernous brick vaults define Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum in China
These are teamed with large woven lampshades that softly light the room, alongside art-deco style partitions that were used to loosely divide the space.
Furniture is kept simple throughout
The artwork throughout the restaurant ranges from bespoke furniture to larger sculptures designed by CCD and produced by an artist called Qi Songtao.
This includes an abstract, cloud-like piece and a metallic, woven artwork that mimics a human head.
A cloud-like sculpture is among the featured artwork
Elsewhere in China, Studio Zhu-Pei also created a series of sweeping, red-brick structures to house the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum.
Located in the city of Jingdezhen, the museum’s cavernous buildings are all unique in size and are designed to recall the forms of traditional brick kilns.
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Dezeen promotion: DU Studio has redesigned the headquarters of Zhengzhou Yutong Bus in Zhengzhou, China, creating an updated corporate identity while reusing up to 60 per cent of the existing structure and materials.Zhengzhou Yutong Bus – China’s largest electric bus manufacturer – commissioned interior design firm DU Studio in 2017 to update its head office and create a space that better reflected company’s successful development in recent years.
The goal was to improve the building’s spatial efficiency, aesthetics and sustainability, creating a multifunctional environment while reusing the majority of the existing structure and materials.
A three-storey green wall towers over the main sales lobby at the Zhengzhou Yutong Bus headquarters
Located in Zhengzhou’s Jingkai District, the headquarters comprises of a 12-storey research and development building and a 15-storey sales office – totalling approximately 60,000 square metres that encompasses multiple lobbies, public spaces, workspaces and VIP areas.
“The main challenge of this renovation was to make the best use of the existing structure, materials, and equipment, and to upgrade the function and aesthetics of the space as much as possible so that it better fit Yutong’s corporate culture,” said DU Studio founder Zhu Ping.
Curving room dividers and tables in the financial hall mimic the design of the brand’s buses
The studio overhauled the main lobby of the sales building, creating a green wall that stretches three levels to bring plants into the building and underscore the renovation’s sustainability goals.
A new sculptural reception desk features three metal rings, one on the floor as the desk itself and two suspended from a central column.
DU Studio added improved lighting in the financial hall, including a light box to create a more human scale
These rings symbolise the wheels of the buses manufactured by the company, and one features a bright digital display screen. DU Studio added new ceiling lights to make the space feel brighter and more welcoming.
The studio also switched up the lighting in the building’s financial hall, putting a large light box in the ceiling to create softly diffused light. Low, curving room dividers and tables mimic the design of the brand’s buses.
In the sales reception hall, planters represent gears and the lights are wheels
The light box “brings the space to the human body scale, increasing the intimacy and forming a cozy waiting area,” according to Ping.
DU Studio also channelled this mechanical inspiration into the tree-filled planter benches in the sales reception hall, which are designed to look like gears biting together.
Black panels were added to the hall to help absorb sound
Ring-shaped pendant lamps are suspended over this atrium and also represent wheels, while doubling as sound-absorption units. To further improve the acoustics in the hall, black panels were added to act as sound baffles and break up the harsh reflective surfaces.
Each office floor has a dedicated coffee area for employees to use, as well as two new cafes for visitors to the headquarters.
Wood panels fixed to the walls at different angles are influenced by the movement of gear wheels
For the second-floor cafe, located next to the exhibition area, DU Studio used burnished metal panels to evoke machinery parts.
Another cafe, located on the building’s 15th floor, is intended to be used by overseas business visitors. Tranquil blue hues were chosen to evoke the ocean, while white ceiling panels installed at different heights mimic clouds.
The 15th-floor cafe for overseas visitors is designed to be calm
Wooden panels line the atrium reserved for VIP guests, which also features trees in planters to represent growth and prosperity. “The renovation design used dense and varied wood grain grids to raise up the three-story height, unifying the visual effect and strengthening the vertical sense of the space,” said Ping.
In the research and development building, DU Studio transformed the previously cramped lobby into a two-storey space covered with a futuristic stainless steel ceiling and glass walls.
Wood panels and trees can be found in the VIP atrium
Each R&D office floor is equipped with exhibition and social spaces for employees to gather in, helping to foster a sense of community.
For the communal spaces of the offices, display shelves feature a decorative pattern of tyre tracks. Lots of different types of seating give employees a range of comfortable places to meet or work from.
Tyre tracks are printed on the walls of the office space
Splashes of blue, the Yutong Bus livery colour, brighten up the open-plan desk areas, which feature lots of plants too. A pattern of buses picked out in grey over a blue wall decorates the office’s storage space.
Since its completion in November 2020, over 5,000 employees have moved into the revamped headquarters. DU Studio hopes to have created an environment in which they can work more efficiently and enjoyably.
A motif of buses decorates the open-plan office
“It was important to analyse in great detail the corporate structure and functional requirements of the spaces, take full use of the existing materials and conditions, and strive to achieve maximum improvement on the quality of the spaces that are functional, aesthetically pleasing, and same time provide a strong sense of comfort and well-being,” said Ping.
The designer founded her Shanghai-based studio around the principles of developing “healthy, humanistic and happy” spaces that include retail, offices, education centres and more. Visit the firm’s website for more information.
Project credits:
Client: Zhengzhou Yutong BusInterior design: DU Studio (向合空间)Design director: Zhu PingInterior design group: Cai Xinhang, Jiang Yishan, Shen YiwenTechnology consultant: Yan GangLighting: BPI
Partnership content
This article was written by Dezeen for DU Studio as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
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J&A and Sepanta Design have created a series of station interiors based on forms and patterns found in nature for the first unmanned metro line in Chengdu, China.Designed to provoke emotion among their visitors, the 13 stations feature fluid forms and cellular patterns informed by the local tradition of silk weaving as well as the flora and fauna found in surrounding parks.
Above: Jincheng Avenue Station features lilac-coloured columns. Top image: Cuqiao Station is one of 13 stations designed by J&A and Sepanta Design
The fully‐automatic, 22-kilometre line has been under construction since 2016 and forms an extension to the existing Chengdu Metro system.
Called Line 9, it runs between the southeast and northwest of the Sichuan Province’s capital and is the first unmanned metro line in the west of China. Instead of drivers, Chengdu’s new trains communicate with each other using the 5G mobile network.
Four “standard artistic stations” feature a similar design
All of the line’s 13 stations are designed by Shenzhen firm Jiang & Associates Design (J&A) in collaboration with London-based studio Sepanta Design.
According to the designers, their ambition for the project was to create spaces that would “entirely change people’s expectations” of what metro stations could be like.
Four “feature stations” including Cuqiao, each have a unique concept
“Chengdu metro stations are not going to be merely points of transit,” said Reza Esmaeeli, founder of Sepanta Design and Design Director at Chetwoods Architects. “They are going to be memorable spaces that offer their passengers an artistic and futuristic expression of their own culture.”
The stations’ interiors were designed to reflect points of local, cultural interest, with the line passing through the birthplace of Sichuan silk and embroidery culture as well as a number of urban ecological parks.
The station interiors are designed to look futuristic
The designers divided the 13 stations into two categories: feature stations and standard artistic stations.
The four feature stations — Incubation Park, Jincheng Avenue, Cuqiao and Jitouqiao — each have a unique concept, reflecting their local environment.
The design for Jincheng Avenue Station nods to lotus flowers
These themes are explored through distinct colours and materials, alongside bespoke furniture.
At Jincheng Avenue Station, for example, the ticket hall is illuminated by curved, lilac-coloured columns reminiscent of lotus flowers in a nearby lake, while lights that resemble silkworm cocoons are installed across walkway ceilings at Cuqiao Station.
Cuqiao Station’s lighting was designed to resemble silkworm cocoons
The other nine “standard artistic stations” have a more uniform design, based on an abstract interpretation of embroidery techniques.
These techniques are translated into flowing, continuous lines and patterns made up of interconnecting, cell-like forms, which are repeated across ceilings, walls, floors, columns and furniture.
The standard artistic stations are colour-coded
Wuchazi Bridge creates “infinite meandering path” over river in Chengdu
Chengdu’s Line 9 follows in the footsteps of other Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, which introduced driverless metro lines in 2010.
Beijing opened its driverless Yanfan line in 2017, while Taiyuan, the largest city of Shanxi province, opened its first fully automated line just eight days after Chengdu, on 28 December last year.
All the stations’ interiors are informed by forms found in nature
In Hong Kong, Ponti Design Studio has created a concept for an autonomous, double-decker tram with a radial interior design that encourages a safe return to public transport after the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Photography is by CHAPA.
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O-office Architects has converted several buildings on a tea plantation near Guangzhou, China, into a cultural centre featuring a rooftop garden wrapped in bamboo screens.As part of the (Re)forming Duichuan Tea Yards project, local firm O-office Architects was tasked with revitalising three disused buildings at the plantation in the Gaoming District of Guangdong Province.
O-office Architects has converted three factory buildings into an exhibition space
The site in Duichuan Village was established as a tea plantation in the 1950s and comprises more than 300 acres of gently rolling hills dotted with small lakes.
O-office Architects was approached to help transform three factory buildings into an exhibition space in 2017, after the tea yard had been abandoned and fallen into disrepair when the demand for its tea declined at the start of the 21st century.
The buildings are decorated with bamboo screens. Photo is by Huang Chengqiang
The exhibition space is located at the heart of the reestablished production facility, which will soon begin harvesting its first new crop of Duichuan tea.
The renovated buildings now contain exhibits offering visitors a historic overview of Duichuan tea culture, alongside a fine-dining restaurant and the tea yard’s offices.
A new stone podium wrapping the buildings frames views of the landscape
The three 1980s edifices are situated on a small island in an artificial reservoir that also contains woodland, with low-rise former workers’ housing nestled amongst the trees.
Exposed concrete structures and narrow-framed steel windows were retained to evoke the buildings’ industrial heritage. The architects also sought to enhance the connection between the former production spaces and the surrounding plantation.
The complex is surrounded by several ponds and trees
“We tried to find a simple spatial prototype for the reconstruction of the site to load the envisioned cultural settlement,” said the architects in a project statement.
“The design gradually approached a concept of the mixture of ‘pavilion’ and ‘podium’,” the studio added. “We tried to evolve the prototype of the ‘pavilion’ into a settlement that encompasses production and detour.”
Roof gardens are connected by bridges
To house the main cultural and public spaces dedicated to the history of tea production, a new podium made from blocks of dark local granite was constructed around the base of the existing buildings.
This structure functions as a viewing platform and contains openings that redefine the relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces, lending the facility a more porous and welcoming character.
The podium is composed of blocks of dark local granite
New roof gardens on top of the three factory buildings are connected by bridges so visitors can traverse the site whilst taking in aerial views of the plantation.
The garden courtyards are lined with bamboo screens that also extend onto staircases at the corners of the buildings. The stairs connect the rooftop with the stone viewing platform, creating a route that leads visitors all the way around and over the site.
The factories’ original concrete structures are exposed inside
“This connection creates a vertical yet horizontal promenade that wraps around the original production space,” the architects pointed out.
“We hope this tour can evoke a sense of ‘in search of a lost time’ [whilst] at the same time acting as a response against the rapid industrialisation of modern urban and rural areas.”
O-office Architects reinterprets traditional Chinese courtyard house in concrete and steel
The blending of the industrial buildings with the plantation is enhanced by landscaping that includes several ponds and trees that reach through apertures in the stone podium.
The new podium contains public spaces
O-office Architects was established by He Jianxiang and Jiang Ying in Guangzhou in 2007. The firm works on projects across various scales, from urban design and architecture to the exhibition and furniture design.
Several of O-office Architects’ projects focus on renovation and conserving the architectural history of the Pearl River Delta. It previously worked on a residence inspired by vernacular courtyard houses found in the region.
Photography is by Zhang Chao unless stated.
Project credits:
Architect: O-office ArchitectsClient: Midea GroupDesign team: He Jianxiang, Jiang Ying, Dong Jingyu, Huang Chengqiang, Zhang Wanyi, Cai Lehuan, Wu Yifei, He Zhenzhong, He Wenkang and Peng WeisenStructural consultant: Situ Ying, Luo Qiyao and Luo JiajieM.E. consultant: Bun Cong M&E DesignV.I. Design: TheWhy art x design
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Design studio Linehouse has converted a Shanghai office block’s swimming pool into an additional workspace, using a palette of blue vinyl, peachy leather and light-hued timber.The swimming pool was part of the fitness facilities made for office workers of the Jing’An Kerry Centre, a mixed-use development in Shanghai’s Jing’An district designed by architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox back in 2013.
The bowl of the swimming pool has been turned into a huge seating area
However as the pool was rarely used, locally-based studio Linehouse was asked to convert the room into something slightly more practical.
It now plays host to various seating areas where staff can work or host informal catch-ups with clients throughout the day. Businesses in the development can also choose to use the room for corporate events or talks.
Flecked blue vinyl lines the inside of the former pool
The focal point of the room is still the swimming pool, but it has been drained of water and lined with flecked blue vinyl from flooring specialists Tarkett.
“It was a great opportunity to play with levels which normally an existing interior space does not allow,” Linehouse’s co-founder, Alex Mok, told Dezeen.
A curved pane of glass encloses a boardroom
Flights of steps that double up as seats have been built-in at the side of the pool, topped with baby-pink cushions. A semi-circular banquette upholstered in peachy-coloured leather has then been created at the far end of the pool.
Linehouse adds elevated tearooms in a warehouse for Tingtai Teahouse in Shanghai
The studio also decided to preserve the huge oval skylight that lies directly above the pool.
Around the skylight runs spherical pendant lamps and a series of light-hued timber fins, some of which extended down towards the floor to form slatted screens.
Some work areas are fronted by slatted timber screens
Should workers need to take a call, they can escape to one of the private phone booths which are at the peripheries of the room.
Inside, the booths are lined with leaf-printed wallpaper from Calico.
Printed wallpaper lines the inside of the phone booths
There’s also a small cafe anchored by a Ceppo Nova stone counter and a formal boardroom enclosed by a curved pane of glass.
The black gridding across the glass is meant to mimic the form of the blue wainscotting that lines the room’s walls. Emerald-green wainscoting features in the meetings rooms, which have been created inside the swimming pool’s former changing areas.
Meeting rooms boast emerald-green wainscotting
Linehouse was set up by Alex Mok and Briar Hickling in 2013. This isn’t the studio’s first conversion project – last year it turned part of an abandoned factory into a teahouse, where guests enjoy their drinks from inside glass-fronted boxes.
Photography is by Dirk Weiblen.
Project credits:
Architect: LinehouseDesign lead: Alex Mok, Briar HicklingDesign team: Cherngyu Chen, Eleonora Nucci, Jingru TongClient: Kerry Properties
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