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      Snøhetta designs Tokyo restaurant with all-black interior and stage-like kitchen

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      Architecture firm Snøhetta has worked with Bronx-based cooking collective Ghetto Gastro to create a jet-black eatery in Tokyo that will house immersive dining experiences.Set above a convenience store in the city’s Harajuku neighbourhood, Burnside is a casual restaurant by day and a bar and lounge by night.

      Top image: floral sculptures by Makoto Azuma hang in the dining area. Above: the room is oriented around a central kitchen
      The space was designed with flexibility in mind, as it will host a rotating roster of chefs and be used for a wide variety of pop-ups and events. It comprises a 30-person dining room with an open kitchen, all decorated using a dark material palette with amber-coloured accents.
      The eatery, which marks Snøhetta’s first project opening in Tokyo, was designed for art and design collective En One Tokyo, with help from local construction partner Kooo Architects and Ghetto Gastro – an ensemble of chefs that specialises in immersive dining experiences.

      The kitchen is open to the eyes of the public

      “Using food to empower communities, Ghetto Gastro celebrates the Bronx as an inspiration and catalyst of global culture,” explained the practice. “Burnside builds upon this creative energy where the Bronx and Tokyo meet.”
      Black was chosen as the predominant colour, referencing the dark atmosphere of Tokyo’s izakaya bars and the characteristic finish of Shou Sugi Ban charred wood. At the same time, it represents Ghetto Gastro’s culinary style, which it describes as “Black Power Kitchen.”

      Steps lead up to the kitchen as if it were a stage
      Together, the team wanted to build a dining experience that combines the intimacy of a bar with the easy informality of convenience stores, whether New York’s bodegas or Japanese conbinis.
      Sound designer Devon Turnbull, who goes by Ojas, designed a bespoke sound system for the space while local flower artist Makoto Azuma created a series of floral sculptures that are displayed behind glass in the dining area.
      Guests arrive at the eatery via a staircase that takes them from the street to the second floor. Once inside, the eye is drawn towards the open kitchen by a curved amber-coloured light strip that runs along the ceiling.

      A long, black sharing table anchors the space
      The space is divided by two intersecting arches, delineating the dining area and kitchen while still allowing views across both spaces.
      A set of steps lead up into the open kitchen as if it were a stage, framed by curved walls that suggest the proscenium arch of a theatre. A central table in the kitchen is the focal point of the entire room, transforming the food preparation into a performance.

      The walls next to the kitchen are curved to suggest a proscenium arch
      A flexible kitchen layout was designed to adapt to the needs of a rotating roster of chefs. It can also be used as a space to dine and eat, or closed off to become a temporary gallery with the help of a curved, sliding partition hidden within the proscenium arch.

      New York bodegas inform interiors of Genuine Liquorette bar in London

      “The transition between day and night, cafe and lounge, is a driving theme for the interior design,” explained Snøhetta. “A dark material palette features amber-coloured accents that reflect the changing light throughout the day while highlighting more ornate design elements such as the floral sculptures designed by Makoto Azuma.”
      Custom-designed, family-style tables maximise the limited floor space and can be joined together or folded away to allow for a variety of layouts including a dance floor for late-night events.

      A curved, sliding partition can be used to divide the space
      Other dark restaurant interiors include central London’s Lucky Cat restaurant, where design studio AfroditiKrassa hoped to create a space that looks better in person than in pictures, and Shenzhen’s Voisin Organique restaurant, which Various Associates designed to resemble a gloomy valley.

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      Cheng Chung Design creates restaurant within brick art installation in China

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      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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      Roar Studio decorates Dubai cafe with terrazzo flooring and broken ceramic tiles

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      Design office Roar Studio combined industrial materials such as concrete and stainless steel with decorative terrazzo and broken ceramic tiles for Drop Coffee, a cafe in Dubai’s Dar Al Wasl Mall.The Dubai-based studio was asked to design an interior that would suit the flow of visitors to the cafe, who enter the space from two different entrances – one connected to the outdoors and one to the mall.

      The bar area is framed by a wooden structure
      It chose to keep the design simple by focusing on the materials used and framed the bar area of the cafe in pale wood and LED lights to create an eye-catching centrepiece.
      “This is the second outlet for this homegrown Emirati brand,” Roar Studio founder Pallavi Dean told Dezeen.
      “Their main drive was to achieve a minimal space where the coffee bar is a central feature and creates a theatrical moment – the making of the coffee is at the front and centre stage.”

      A broken-tile mosaic decorates the main wall

      The ceiling of the cafe is concrete and the studio also painted the walls with a concrete paint finish, which is complemented by a terrazzo-effect tiled stone floor in grey and white hues.
      Its colours and shapes are picked up on the main wall, which was decorated with a mosaic of broken ceramic tiles that form an abstract pattern similar to the floor.
      “We sourced basic white tiles from Rakceramics – a local manufacturer – which were then broken on-site to compose a patterned wall,” Dean explained.
      “We aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel by using broken tiles – our idea was to form a counterpoint to the terrazzo effect porcelain flooring as though the chips of the broken tiles were used in the flooring.”

      Stainless steel was used for the countertops
      A large counter in pale wood is connected to the ceiling by beams in the same material, framing the bar area of the store. The counter is covered in stainless steel, which was chosen for both practical and aesthetic reasons.

      BLUE Architecture Studio adds U-shaped glass box to Shanghai coffee shop

      “The coffee bar has a stainless steel countertop which is extremely sturdy and hygienic but also allows the light to bounce through the space because of its reflectivity,” Dean said.

      Orange clamp-style tables for a quick coffee break
      Around the base of the bar, lighted skirting made out of glass blocks give the impression that it is floating above the ground. By the side of the bar, the enclosed kitchen area features a wall made from matching glass blocks, enabling visitors to see the silhouettes of Drop Coffee’s staff while they work.
      The studio also chose to work with certain materials to help create a less noisy atmosphere for the visitors.
      “The ceiling is acoustic foam sprayed, an effect that adds to the industrial aesthetic and helps muffle the noise in the open-plan space – not to mention the noise generated by the coffee machines,” Dean explained.

      Grey hues and pale wood decorate the space
      Drop Coffee already has one cafe in Dubai and the plan is for each of the branches to be associated with a different colour, with burnt orange used for Roar Studios’ design.
      The colour has been dotted throughout the space and was used for seating as well as on clamp-style tables set along one wall for customers who want to have a quick coffee standing up.

      Australia’s dramatic landscape and sunsets inform design of Hong Kong cafe

      Roar Studio was founded in 2013 as Pallavi Dean Interiors by Dean, who was a Dezeen Awards 2020 judge, and rebranded as Roar Studio in 2018. It has previously designed a high-tech learning space for children in Dubai and issued a white paper about the ways in which Covid-19 will impact the design of schools and colleges.
      Photography is by Oculis Project.

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      Sky-blue cafe in Buffalo features “Alice in Wonderland” staircase

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      Canadian design duo Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster have created a playful all-blue cafe in a century-old house in Buffalo, New York, with an optical illusion staircase.Named Tipico Coffee, the cafe’s identity was formed with the intention of designing a space that encourages social interactions and supports local craftsmanship.

      The cafe’s main bar is grafted from reclaimed furniture
      Reclaimed furniture and lighting made from construction-site string lights feature alongside an oversized staircase to nowhere which forms amphitheatre-style seating.
      The cafe’s main bar is made from ten reclaimed wooden tables sourced from classified advertisements website Craigslist.

      The main bar encourages social interactions

      The tables are grafted together and painted in sky-blue, forming a unified bar which runs along one wall of the cafe.
      “The process of designing the cafe really started with the idea of the social infrastructure of the grafted bar,” Jamrozik and Kempster told Dezeen.

      Drinks on ice are displayed between the bar’s table-tops
      The open bar has clusters of swivelling stools arranged around blue table-tops that jut out of the bar’s customer side, allowing easy socialising between customers and staff.
      “The different shapes of the tables come together to create opportunities for conversations,” continued the designers.
      “This is augmented with the use of swivelling bar stools that allow patrons the ability to turn their bodies to orient themselves to a new connection.”

      Swivelling stools encourage random encounters between customers and staff

      BLUE Architecture Studio adds U-shaped glass box to Shanghai coffee shop

      Groups of circular olive-green garden tables and chairs, as well as built-in blue benches, make up two intimate seating areas behind each side of the bar, which are separated by a wall.
      The tables and chairs used are purposefully outdoor furniture. This means that the seating can be moved onto an exterior patio in the summer months.

      Tipico’s atmosphere is a mix of indoors and outdoors
      Various scattered potted plants blend green and blue furniture together and continue the theme of bringing the outdoors inside.
      Jamrozik and Kempster explained their intentions for using sky-blue as the cafe’s dominant colour.

      Ménard Dworkind creates retro coffee bar in downtown Montreal

      “We wanted to use a vibrant colour to visually tie together the bar and benches to create continuity in the space and give visual emphasis to the bar as the main design gesture.”
      “We chose blue to both complement the olive green furniture and plants, but also to create moments of contrast with the bespoke yellow lights,” they continued.

      Potted plants are scattered around the space
      The bespoke lights designed for the cafe are composed of construction-site string lights, wound around sections of aluminium stock tubes. They hang above the bar and the seating areas.
      “We wanted to transform the string lights, while still making it clear what the source product was,” explained the designers.

      Lighting made from construction-site string lights
      Metal pegboard is another off-the-shelf material used in the space, making up a menu board behind the bar, a merchandise display board and a community message board.
      The bottom of the main bar and built-in-benches was also lined with wooden pegboard in order to “give them both a visual texture, taking advantage of the acoustic properties of the perforations,” said Jamrozik and Kempster

      A merchandise display board made from metal pegboard
      A sense of the building’s historic charm remains in the existing fireplace that is preserved, which is painted in a strip of the same sky-blue paint as the main bar.
      An over-scaled stairwell acts as an additional, cosy seating area fit for a couple of customers at a time.

      The building’s original fireplace and its playful stairwell
      Sealed off by a mirror and leading to nowhere, the stairwell is intended as an “Alice in Wonderland moment,” enhancing the cafe’s playfulness.
      “The stairway’s oversized steps effectively shrink the visitor and act as seats while the mirrored ceiling gives the impression that the space continues up,” explained Jamrozik and Kempster.
      “We imagine people will be drawn to the curious space and hope that they enjoy the tongue-in-cheek reference that plays on the domestic history of the original building,” continued the designers.

      Sealed off by a mirror, the stairwell is an optical illusion
      Jamrozik and Kempster note the importance of playful design in their work, which they believe connects people in public spaces.
      “We use the language of play to create social infrastructures: physical prompts which encourage contact between strangers.”
      “We believe that questioning the way people use and occupy space and their relationship to one another through playful encounters has enormous potential to speak across generations and cultural differences,” they continued.

      The importance of play is an influence in Jamrozik and Kempster’s design work
      Designers everywhere are acknowledging the importance of designing public spaces to maximise social interactions. In Montreal, Ménard Dworkind has created a cafe with a central standing bar, while Central Saint Martins graduates have created blocky outdoor furniture for a public square in Croydon, London.
      Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster have collaborated on design projects since 2003. Their varied work spans temporary installations and permanent interior and architectural commissions.
      Photography is by Sara Schmidle.
      Project credits: 
      Architecture team: Abstract Architecture PC

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      Warm hues and central oven define Sofi bakery in Berlin

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      The layout of this craft bakery in Berlin, designed by Danish architects Mathias Mentze and Alexander Vedel Ottenstein, revolves around an open kitchen that showcases the beauty of the bread-making process.Located in the courtyard of a restored brick factory in the city’s Scheunenviertel quarter, Sofi is a craft bakery that makes bread and cakes using grains sourced from small, organic farmers in Northern Europe.

      Above: Sofi is housed in a former brick factory. Top image: A long, communal table offers space to eat
      The project is a collaboration between Danish chef and restaurateur Frederik Bille Brahe and Design Hotels founder Claus Sendlinger.
      As well as making baked goods using organic ingredients and low-intervention techniques, the owners’ ambition is for Sofi to serve as a community hub and to supply fresh bread to a selection of local restaurants.

      A 3.5-metre-tall bread shelf separates the bakery from the guest area

      Its interior was designed by Mentze and Vedel Ottenstein in collaboration with Augsburg-based interior design studio Dreimeta.
      “We were introduced to the project last summer when Frederik Bille Brahe approached us about a new bakery he was working on in Berlin,” Vedel Ottenstein told Dezeen.
      “Like Frederik, we are based in Copenhagen and have frequented his existing cafes and restaurants. So he brought us on to ensure that there would be a distinct Copenhagen feel to his first endeavour outside of Denmark.”

      A corner bench is made from solid elm
      “When we first visited the site in July 2020, the former tenant — which was a famous bagel shop — had just vacated the space. From the beginning, it was quite easy to imagine that this could be an amazing project, as the space itself has a lot of nice qualities,” he recalled.
      “The double-height ceiling as well as the connection to the inner courtyard bring both light and a certain curiosity to the location. The space needed a lot of work but we felt the assignment was more to bring forth existing qualities instead of inventing new ones.”

      All furniture was custom-made for the interior
      The new floor plan revolves around an open-plan kitchen that sits at the centre of the space. Conceived as a “production floor”, this allows guests to watch Sofi’s small, international team of young bakers rolling out dough and working the ovens.
      “Making bread is a highly technical skillset with all these different steps and we wanted this process to be the generator of the plan layout,” said Vedel Ottenstein.

      Six bakeries and sweets shops with delectable interiors

      “A bakery has a very clear narrative in which the oven is the heart of the place and so we wanted to place the oven in the exact middle of the space,” he continued.
      “It’s like a choreography and we wanted to showcase the beauty of the process to all of the customers – from mixing the flour and water all the way to stocking up the bread shelf with freshly baked goods.”

      The shelves display a range of the team’s favourite products
      A red vinyl floor and walls painted in a delicate yellow hue are intended to reflect the colours of the bricks in the courtyard outside.
      Peg coat racks and shelves wrap the walls while a 3.5-metre-tall bread shelf and long communal table fill up the centre of the space.

      The stools were made by Rammelisten
      All are made from solid elm with walnut detailing, with larger pieces such as the counter, bread rack, work table and shelves fabricated by a German carpentry firm. Smaller, movable items including the stools and benches were crafted by Rammelisten, a small woodwork studio based just north of Copenhagen.
      “This was so that we could be more hands-on, follow the production and do alterations to the designs if we discovered issues,” explained Vedel Ottenstein.

      Atelier Vime’s wicker lamp was decorated with a flower display by Danh Vo
      The huge wicker pendant lamp that hangs over the communal table was handmade by French studio Atelier Vime and has been decorated with a flower display by local artist Danh Vo.
      “The flower arrangement installed inside the shade is made from bast and hops flowers as a nod to the leftover waste from beer production that Frederik intends to use in the bread-making at Sofi,” explained Vedel Ottenstein.

      Pinocchio is a tiny bakery in Japan decorated in the colours of bread

      “The installation is a seasonal piece, where Danh Vo will bring in new flowers and plants according to the season from his farm north of Berlin, called Güldenhof,” he continued.
      “He wishes to challenge the typical idea of a flower arrangement by using unexpected plants and weeds such as flowering leeks and lettuces.”

      The bakery’s colourful glazed tableware comes from Studio X
      A tall, open shelving unit separating the bakery and guest area displays a range of the team’s favourite products — including ceramics, coffee, tea, natural wines and flour from the Danish Kørnby mill.
      Colourful glazed tableware by London’s Studio X, hand-crafted cups by Danish artist Kasper Hesselbjerg and vintage cutlery were all carefully selected by the design team and owners.
      Sofi is not the first warm-hued bakery to feature on Dezeen. Design studio I IN decorated this tiny bakery in Japan in the colours of bread, while US studio The New Design Project outfitted a West Village cookie shop with speckled terrazzo, beige tiles and creamy walls to reference the baked goods for sale.
      Photography is by Volker Conradus.

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      Australia's dramatic landscape and sunsets inform design of Hong Kong cafe

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      The terracotta colour scheme and semi-circular forms used throughout this Hong Kong cafe by architecture firms Studio Etain Ho and Absence from Island pay homage to Uluru and Australia’s spectacular sunsets.Located on a street corner in Hong Kong’s Sai Ying Pun district, the 30-square-metre cafe sits at the bottom of an old apartment building.

      Above: Today is Long features semi-circular windows and murals. Top image: It is located at the bottom of an old apartment block. Photo is courtesy of Dypiem
      It has a generous facade and a tight, triangular plan into which the architects have managed to squeeze a compact kitchen and bar area with a serving counter, as well as an area of bench seating and two toilets.
      Called Today is Long, the cafe is owned by a barista and a public-relations manager, who bonded over their shared love of coffee and the fact they’d both spent time studying and working in Australia.

      The lower part of the cafe’s facade is wrapped in terracotta-coloured tiles. Photo is courtesy of Liz Eatery

      “The cafe is a place to house their fond memories of Australia and the good coffee that makes their life,” explained Etain Ho, who also runs Absence from Island alongside its founder Chi Chun Tang.
      “They would very much like to share the coffee with local residents and to make the cafe into a social hub.”

      Puddle completes concrete coffee shop at Hong Kong’s Star Ferry terminal

      The owners’ love for Australia has been translated into the design in the form a warm orange palette informed by the colours of dusk and the country’s famous natural landmark Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, which is a sandstone monolith in the Northern Territory.
      As well as the colour scheme, the hemispherical shape of a setting sun has been incorporated into the cafe’s walls and windows,  forming a distinctive geometrical facade that distinguishes the cafe from its grey concrete surroundings.

      A tunnel above the entrance houses potted plants
      One of the semi-circular windows is recessed above the cafe’s entrance, creating a sheltered, terracotta-coloured tunnel for housing potted plants.
      A similar shape is carved into the wall below the take-away counter window and rotated sideways to create the rounded rectangle that acts as Today is Long’s largest window.

      Bench seating runs along the window
      A strip of fired ceramic tiles that recall the texture of Uluru’s sunbaked sandstone wraps the lower portion of the cafe’s exterior, extending the warm orange colour scheme to the street.
      Inside, the generous windows, white walls and terrazzo floor create a light and open space. A corner of casual, stepped bench seating topped with terracotta tiles is dotted with potted plants and framed by a semi-circular mural.

      Greenery is integrated liberally into the design. Photo is courtesy of Liz Eatery
      “Australia has always been blessed with abundant amounts of sunlight, so a lot of white has been used together with the large windows to enhance the bright and airy atmosphere,” explained Etain Ho.
      “Spaces have been reserved under the entrance arch, seating area and the overhead storage for plants in order to create a green, lush and natural environment. Coffee grains used in the cafe will also be recycled as fertiliser for the plants.”

      The sign bearing the cafe’s acronym hangs above the door
      Studio Etain Ho and Absence from Island are not the first design studio to use sunset colours to brighten up a grey urban context.
      In Tokyo, local designer Yota Kakuda enlivened a cheese tart shop with a transparent acrylic counter coloured in a gradient of bright pink, orange, yellow and lime.
      All photography is by Fo Visuals unless otherwise stated.

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      Krøyer & Gatten celebrates the 1960s and 70s in design for Aarhus restaurant Substans

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      Michelin-starred Aarhus restaurant Substans has moved to a new harbour-side location, designed by local studio Krøyer & Gatten to feel like a Danish home from 50 years ago.The new Substans, which opened in mid-2019, is located on the 11th floor of a new block in the docklands area of Aarhus, Denmark.

      Substans is a Michelin-starred restaurant in Aarhus
      The restaurant, owned by chef René Mammen and his wife Louise, serves Nordic-style cuisine. But there is no à la carte menu – diners are instead served tasting menus filled with highly technical dishes.
      Krøyer & Gatten, which specialises in both architecture and carpentry,  designed the interior of the new space with a similar approach, aiming to celebrate Danish design heritage but to give it a contemporary twist.

      The design takes its cues from residential interiors of the 1960s and 70s

      Studio co-founder Kristian Gatten said they did this by referencing interior design from the 1960s and 70s.
      “The idea behind the interior was to create a cosy intimate space,” he told Dezeen, “with inspiration from architects such as Friis and Moltke, Alvar Aalto and Jørgen Bækmark.”

      The simple materials palette includes oak, bricks and ceramic tiles
      Gatten and partner Philip Krøyer chose materials that are both retro and humble, with distinct references to traditional home interiors. For example, the kitchen features simple brown tiles, while the terrazzo-topped bar is made from white-painted brickwork.
      The dining room is designed to feel simple but homely, with oak flooring, pale curtains and wooden furniture.

      The aim was to create the right atmosphere to accompany the food
      “Visiting a Michelin restaurant should be a holistic experience,” said Gatten, “an experience with great food and wine, but also a great atmosphere and interior/spatial experience.”
      The key to achieving this, he said, was in “creating small stories and spatial experiences within the restaurant”.

      A shelving grid creates the feeling of a pantry in one area
      This meant that the dining space was divided into four zones, each with its own domestic-inspired design concept: the entrance, the pantry, the kitchen and the dining room.
      The entrance space is designed to feel welcoming, with the oak door and slatted wall offering a distinct change in material from the raw concrete of the lobby before it.

      Shelves are dotted with jars of food, wine glasses and plants
      The pantry, which forms the first section of the dining room, is flanked by a large wooden shelving grid, dotted with jars of dried and preserved food, wine glasses and plants.

      Moody interiors of Le Pristine restaurant by Space Copenhagen take cues from the Old Masters

      The kitchen area, which includes the bar and the tables in front, has an open and casual feel, because diners are able to see their food and drinks being prepared. By contrast, the dining room at the rear is more secluded.

      Krøyer & Gatten designed and built most of the solid oak furniture pieces
      Krøyer & Gatten designed and built many of the Substans furniture pieces, including round tables covered with blue linoleum, simple bench seats and curve-backed chairs.
      These solid oak pieces all have visible fixings, so that they could be easily repaired or disassembled in the future.

      Visible fixings allow these pieces to be easily repaired or disassembled
      These are complemented by classic pieces, including pendant lights designed by Poul Henningsen in the 1950s and a set of chairs designed by JL Møllers Møbelfabrik in 1962, which were manufactured locally.
      Photography is by Martin Gravgaard.

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      O-office Architects transforms abandoned factory buildings into Chinese tea museum

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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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