Spatial experiment

The project reflects Shanghai’s evolving urban culture. By creating a curated immersive environment, the café acts as both a neighborhood gathering place and a statement of global coffee culture. It connects the local context with international design trends, enriching the city’s cultural fabric.

 

Design Philosophy

The project was conceived as a commercial space that transcends traditional functions. Instead of a conventional café, it represents an immersive curatorial experience, where design, commerce, and community intertwine. The design emphasizes a new urban lifestyle -open, experimental, and centered around creative exchange.

The original building’s spacious design and rugged industrial features offered both challenges and opportunities for the project. Instead of using traditional walls, the design features low, wooden walls and modular display racks to create a space that feels both open and organized. The plant installations at the entrance and the creative exhibition square blend together, marking the start of the commercial transformation while also telling a cultural story. The space is designed to grow organically: the modular racks can be rearranged to update product displays, and the central area can be quickly changed into a conference or event space by moving the coffee cart and adjusting the seating. This flexibility is key to balancing the space’s function and aesthetic appeal.

 

 

Spatial Organization

The spatial concept blends circulation, display, and social interaction. Multiple levels of platforms and corridors connect seamlessly, allowing people to experience the café dynamically from different perspectives. The arrangement encourages movement, interaction, and exploration, making the space part café, part gallery, part social hub. Zones for coffee, exhibition, and creative workshops are integrated within a single cohesive narrative. Flexible furniture and modular installations allow the space to adapt to different events and activities. The functional design ensures both day-to-day café operation and the potential to host curated events or art showcases.

 

 

Material Palette & Sustainability

Natural textures like wood, stone, and metal are layered with experimental finishes. Contrasts of raw and refined materials reflect the blend of commerce and creativity. Lighting plays a key role, highlighting architectural gestures while shaping intimate atmospheres. Finally, the modular display systems and flexible plant arrangements make the space adaptable to seasonal changes, events, and the natural rhythms of the plants. This method goes beyond traditional design, giving the space the ability to adjust and stay lively. It’s sustainable not only because it uses natural elements to save energy, but because the design allows commercial activities to blend with the space’s natural flow.

 

Architectural dialogue

With a total construction area of 192m², the pavilion is strategically positioned adjacent to the house, ensuring direct access to the outdoors while maintaining its connection with the existing residence.

 

Design Philosophy

Its placement allows for seamless integration with the property, providing accessibility without compromising the original structure’s prominence. To achieve a sense of coexistence and balance, the pavilion, along with its access corridor and open terrace, is set half a level below the property’s general access level. This deliberate design choice prevents it from overshadowing the main house while fostering a harmonious architectural dialogue.

The pavilion’s design emerges from an interplay of geometric lines that extend from both the site and the existing residence. Its footprint is a direct response to the spatial and contextual dynamics of the area, carefully shaped by its surroundings. The interior program includes a dining area, bar, lounge, and billiards space, while the outdoor section features a terrace with a barbecue and an amphitheater. The amphitheater also serves as a staircase, providing access to the rear or main garden, as the structure is partially buried within the landscape.

 

 

Context Integration

Respecting the natural environment was a fundamental aspect of the project. The pavilion was designed with minimal intervention in the green area, preserving the existing vegetation and introducing a green roof to enhance sustainability. The architectural concept embraces a timeless aesthetic- understated and refined on the exterior while expressing a dynamic contrast within. Material selection reinforces this duality, with exposed concrete defining the exterior and a carefully curated mix of natural materials shaping the interior.

 

 

Construction Challenges & Materials

Several constraints guided the design process. The pavilion was required to maintain functional autonomy while remaining within a height restriction, ensuring it did not exceed the parapet of the ante-dining room window. Additionally, its relationship with nature was prioritized, with a green oak tree preserved as a central element of the intervention site. A conscious differentiation in form and materials was implemented to acknowledge and respect the architecture of the existing house. The overall materiality was driven by the use of natural and unaltered materials, reinforcing a dialogue between the built environment and the surrounding landscape.

 

Transparency and openness

The project involves the redevelopment and repurposing of a 1,050m² office building, transforming it into a multi-functional space. The new design features a self-contained boutique and short-term rental apartments on the upper floors, while maintaining office spaces on the ground floor.

 

Building Restoration

The majority of the building’s interior and exterior elements are removed, preserving the core structural framework, staircase, and lift and adding new canopies and exits on the second, third, and fourth floors. The central design concept focuses on the simpleness and integrity of the structure, with large openings providing interior views of the nearby waterfront and enhancing the building’s outward-facing aesthetic.

 

Spatial Organization

The building comprises of four floors -ground, first, second, third floors, and an attic- as well as two basement levels. The second basement is designated for car parking, while the first serves the ground floor, which features an open-plan office space. The first and second floors each house three apartments, ranging from 45m² to 50m². On the third floor, there are two larger apartments, each between 70m² and 80m², offering premium sea views. The fourth floor is home to a small penthouse, a transparent pavilion with a green roof, a deck, a barbeque area, and a spacious swimming pool with uninterrupted views of the sea.

 

Material Selection

The interior architecture follows an open-plan concept, with the selection of materials, finishes, furniture, and equipment thoughtfully referencing Greek elements, reinterpreted through a modern lens. Micro-mosaic flooring, custom-designed specifically for this project, spans nearly all interior, exterior, and public spaces, apart from the offices and penthouse, giving the building a unique identity. These mosaics blend seamlessly with the vertical exterior shading louvres, the building’s most prominent architectural feature: crafted from white concrete with Naxos and Tinos marble tiles, these louvres function as sculptural mosaic elements, adding a contemporary touch to the façade.

 

Façade Design

The fixed louvres encasing the building’s exterior form a secondary shell, providing both shading and privacy. Inspired by the nearby water, just 300 meters away, the design of the louvres mimics the flow of waves. Positioned at varying angles according to the Fourier series -a mathematical method for describing waves- these vertical elements create a curvilinear effect. This sensation is enhanced by sunlight and, more notably, by the shadows cast by horizontal architectural projections. As the sun moves throughout the day, the façades reflect this dynamic movement, displaying a pattern of shifting sine waves.

The horizontal shading systems, or pergolas, are designed similarly at both ground level and on the green roof, where aluminum is chosen as the structural material due to weight considerations. On the top level, fixed louvres are positioned outside and above the enclosed pavilion, enhancing energy efficiency and comfort, which also visually reinforce the central design concept on the building’s “fifth façade.” Additionally, significant emphasis is placed on incorporating greenery into the redesign to improve the building’s thermal, visual, and environmental conditions, as well as to enhance the microclimate of the surrounding, densely developed area.