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      Linehouse transforms Shanghai swimming pool into office space

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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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      Linehouse uses typically urban materials inside Xiamen's JNBY store

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      Concrete, steel and fluted glass merge inside this shop that design studio Linehouse has created for fashion brand JNBY in Xiamen, China.Chinese cities were a key point of reference for Linehouse, which has decked out JNBY’s Xiamen store with materials often seen in dense urban settings – concrete, glass and steel.
      The interior aesthetic of this JNBY store will be rolled out across all of the brand’s future locations in China – one branch has already opened in Chengdu, and another is set to open in Changsha.

      The JNBY store features a coffered concrete ceiling
      The ceiling of the 100-square-metre store is entirely covered with concrete coffers. Each one is bordered by bright-white LED strip lights.

      A curved, steel-frame screen inset with panels of fluted glass runs around the periphery of the space, set back from the structural walls. The partition balances on chunky cylindrical blocks made from recycled concrete pavement.

      Panels of fluted glass form a screen around the edge of the store
      The urban materiality of the store is interrupted by a couple of ceramic display stands, which Linehouse formed by wrapping convex tiles around steel poles that extend from the floor to the ceiling.
      Some of the stands have been fitted with a metal ring where garments can be hung, while others have small shelves where accessories can be put on show.

      The screen’s glass panels are held within a steel framework
      Convex tiles also clad the front of JNBY’s service counter. When viewed up close, customers will be able to see a myriad of cracks, which Linehouse made visible by adding Chinese ink into the tiles’ glaze.

      John Anthony restaurant by Linehouse is “British tea hall turned Chinese canteen”

      The sculptural bases of the store’s low-lying display tables are made from grainy wood or concrete that the studio has cast against pieces of fabric.

      Convex tiles with subtle cracks clad the store’s service counter
      “The brand sought a modern approach to capture its core values, focusing on material exploration while guiding urban dwellers in appreciating the surprise and poetry of everyday life,” explained Linehouse.
      “So we wanted to contrast the urban represented by the concrete, steel and textured glass with the notion of crafted imperfection represented in the ceramic and timber detailing… they have the qualities of the handmade; variation and contrast.”

      The same tiles form a couple of vertical display stands
      Linehouse was established in 2013 by Alex Mok and Briar Hickling, and works between offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
      The austere material palette of the JNBY store in Xiamen is a far cry from the studio’s recently completed project, Basehall – an upscale food court in Hong Kong. Inside, the venue features walls lined with pink-metal rods, brass light fittings and a blue metalwork ceiling.
      Photography is by Dirk Weiblen.
      Project credits:
      Architect: LinehouseDesign lead: Alex Mok, Briar HicklingDesign team: Cherngyu Chen, Jingru Tong, Celine Chung

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