Text description provided by the architects. Craft beer is a product that benefits from modern micro-craftsmanship, it emphasizes independence, niche, and tradition. Being different from industrial beer that pursues mass production, it pays more attention to local development, technological innovation, and brand personality. Peiping Machine is a craft brewing brand dedicated to the integration of pure brewing quality and local culture renovation. In order to achieve this internal consistency and truly build the "factory", we carefully studied the entire process of beer brewing, and concerned focused on planning the changes of "raw material - primary processing - saccharification - fermentation - Canning - storage and refrigeration - production". Taking advantage of the site's own physical condition, it achieved effective organization and implementation of the "beer factory production line" concept.
We designed three approaches to experience the space, including the original frame truss unit, the newly added steel structure pathway towards the equipment room, and the movable furniture system, which imply three different kinds of feelings. Beauty is reborn under the condition of space reconfiguration, classification, and organization.
As to the construction, we retained the original doors, the windows, and the 9m high roof ceiling, to lead a large area of sunlight into the interior, which is green energy that hardly needs to turn on the lights during the day. The newly added exposed silver round pipes are able to keep the original factory spatial form, the same as the original truss structure restored, to compose the function and space order. The brewing tower and the refrigerated wine storage are lean against the east and west walls respectively and are connected by an 8-meter-long overhead steel structure bridge in the middle. With a metal fence arranged alongside, the bridge visually extends the entire production line and creates a double-layer space image. There are 28 wine heads on the bar directly below the wine warehouse, providing a continuous supply of fresh drinkings for the 300-square-meter space customers. On the second floor, next to the circular refrigeration, we arranged two more private dining spaces, with black and white tiles and mid-century furniture. Near the entrance, there is an elevator used to facilitate wine carrying and for people up and down. Four main equipment components establish a basic order from production to transmission for the space, realizing the realistic transformation from a restaurant to a craft beer factory. The movable seating area and the fixed seating group against the wall, two styles, adapt to the needs of different activities. Following the physical texture of materials, the harmonious tones composed of silver, orange, dark gray, and textile are a spatial story between human and industrial relics.
If practicality is grounded on practical handcraft sense and machine technical metaphors, while the aesthetic intention is anchored by space quality, by the ambitious connection of history and the present. The early pioneers of modernism insisted that architecture should be beneficial for people, however, craft beer shows a more precise technical requirement, and the designer's target was to find a technical standard for the space to meet our imagination and definition, not only serving the brand but also satisfying customers. As designers, we think our attitude should not stop at consumerism. Beyond economic development, there are cultural inheritance and protection that includes how to retain material experience and public memory in our living environment. We hope that the new space will enhance cultural confidence in Peiping Machine, stimulate the enthusiasm of participants from different fields, encourage a positive and unique on-site Peiping experience in the wave of urbanization, and create more possibilities for public conversation among citizens.
