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Architects: Chiasmus Partners
- Area: 725 m²
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Photographs:Aaron Qiao
Text description provided by the architects. On the northern tip of the Bund, within the beautiful and historic garden of WaiTanYuan, a newly constructed brick vaulted wine cellar unravels keys to an un‐paralleled time travel experience.
The 725 square meter complex is designed by Chiasmus Partners, a Seoul and Beijing based architectural firm. The theme of the project is as much about the culture of wine as a hyper‐real window into the world of western gentlemen culture from the bygone century. The 5 main vaults, patterned in Catalonian fishbone bricklayer, hovers over a wine vestibule, a long bar, a wine tasting room, a main hall and a dining saloon. An additional hidden oak room for cigar is an imaginary fusion of Winston Churchill's Downing St. office and WW II underground headquarter. If trades are indeed the origins of traveling, then the collections of imported wines, spirits and aged tobacco from around the world are historic witnesses. The origin of each forms the theme for much of the artwork within the cellar. Furthermore, each of main spaces contains an individual vault, with specifically set temperature for the storing of red wine, white wine, champagne and cigar.
With the belief that memories could also be creative, we have formed a space underneath the founding landmark of Bund that is at once nostalgic and contemporary, with grandeur and intimacy, its process of making akin to the inception of an ideal.