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Architects: BUZZ/ Büro Ziyu Zhuang
- Area: 530 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Shengliang Su, Frontera Lighting Design (Beijing), Nestlé China
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Architectural Design: Fabian Wieser, Mengzhao Xing
Text description provided by the architects. Cooperated with Nestlé China, RSAA/ Büro Ziyu Zhuang has designed Sense Café Beijing, whose brand design is done by Ogilvy Beijing. The project is open in No.27 Neiwubu Street from 27th April to 5th May, which is designed to present a brand-new interpretation of the coffee experience and traditional Chinese courtyard.
Beijing is remolded here. Siheyuan (traditional Chinese courtyard in Beijing) is a spatial metaphor of the city, as urban movements flow through the golden drapes and soft spaces in the courtyard, boundaries are broken here.
The design breaks through a series of boundaries of the ancient city, leading people through the streets of the city and into a series of images interwoven with ancient impressions and Contemporary Perceptions. Just as coffee gives people different levels of sensory experience, through the drinks, visitors can have a constant dialogue with the city.
It is a difficult proposition to integrate a contemporary space attribute into the traditional Chinese courtyard. According to the traditional Chinese courtyard pattern, whether its relationship derived from the structural system, its form, as well as itself as a prototype, what can be extended is actually very limited.
Inside the square courtyards, the image of mobility creates cavities and a series of soft spaces through metal curtains, which can be seen as the boundary relationships of the ancient city. They collide with the original courtyard, inviting people to join the city's conversation with coffee, savoring Beijing's past and future. Coffee can tell historical and cultural stories, so do the cafe.
In this reconstruction, the design team put a very contemporary image and spatial prototype into the courtyard through a "soft approach”. In this way, the design created a kind of overlap with its original courtyard both from virtual and real space. This combination applied a new way of perceiving and experiencing the courtyard space.