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Architects: STUDIO FSJ
- Area: 75 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Hao Chen, Simin Ding
Text description provided by the architects. Located on the ground floor of Shanghai Changfeng Joy City, Ninth Coffee occupies one corner of the outdoor atrium of the shopping mall. The all-outdoor climate, the square scale of the hall, and the street neighborhood feel bring the project a special urban atmosphere. The café starts with an“anchor”: Kiosk. Like a small side pavilion in a public square of a city, it opens up in all directions. Its powerful presence catches the eyes of pedestrians coming from any direction - a center for trading and communication.
Contrary to the traditional café setting where the counter is placed inside the store, our proposal pushes it to the very forefront, showing the process of coffee making to the public at a close distance. Two entries surround the kiosk on either side, making it more like an island and people can stop and pass by from both sides.
The presence and weight of the Kiosk are transmitted from the head to the interior of the store through a continuous, cave-like terrazzo structure, sculpting various functional spaces: the coffee-making area, cashier, storage, and dining area.
Like an excavated stone, it grows out of the interior along the original column, makes a bend near the center of the plot, and ends at the outermost corner. Through squeezing the corridor, the space cut out by the terrazzo structure creates a diagonal view contact within the regular plot line.
In contrast to the weightiness of the stone, the rest of the façade presents an opposite lightness through the translucent glass and structural elements. Along the long façade, a leaf-shaped seating area tends to curl inwards, gently 'embracing' passers-by.
Warm cherry wood rods reduce the large scale of the façade to an intimate human scale, creating an open but cozy space. By giving up some areas within the red line and activating it, the passage feel of the mall corridor is weakened, while enhancing and encouraging the interaction inside and outside.
