Architects:dongqi Design

Area:600m²

Year:2025

Photographs:Yasu Kojima

Lead Architects:JIANG Nan

Category:Renovation,Retail

Design Team:Huang Bingkun, Wang Ning, Wang Tong, Jiang Cunbei, Wu Jie, Mu Yujun

Engineering & Consulting > Structural:XinY Structural Consultants

General Contractor:Beijing Dragon Decoration

City:Shanghai

Country:China

Text description provided by the architects. dongqi Design has renovated three different buildings into a multi-functional complex that integrates retail, exhibition, F&B and office spaces in downtown Shanghai. The project consists of a three-story brick-concrete building facing the street on the south side, an 8-meter-high factory building, and a single story brick-concrete building on the north side. The ground floor of the three-story building serves as a leisure area, while the second and third floors are office areas. The factory building accommodates a retail area and an independent VIP room. The single-story building on the north side contains a catering area.

A dark gray external sunshade curtain system is added to the three-story building facade, with its tracks and electromechanical equipment wrapped in stainless steel tubes. The window openings on the second and third floors have been renovated to consist of openable steel plates on the inner side and fixed glass on the outer side. Lights are installed above the window openings, which can be used for display.

Inside the leisure area, tall elm tables are evenly arranged without any chairs, designed to allow people to move around freely and chat with each other. The rustic mottled texture is retained on the walls. The hot-rolled steel bar counter caters to both indoor and outdoor guests. The oversized hopper windows along the street can be lifted upwards to be nearly flush with the ceiling.

There are 11 cross-shaped display racks and an overpass arranged inside the factory building. The overpass adopts an ultra-thin beamless steel structure system. The whole overpass are made of one piece of 12mm-thick solid stainless steel plate, which is suspended from the central columns of several cross-shaped display racks via stay cables. Each cross-shaped display rack takes a metal frame as the basic unit. Shelves are built inside the frames for display purposes. Some racks cantilever a second layer of frames above with steel cables as the structure. The bottom of each cross-shaped display rack is flush with the ground and connected to the pre-embedded structural beams underneath. The display racks, the stay cable system and the overpass form a whole stable structure.

Metals are used a lot in the retail space, including the stainless steel plates, the hot-dip galvanized finishes, as well as the metal mesh. The preservation of distinct textures on different metal surfaces embodies diversity and unity.

Inside the south building is the F&B area. Auxiliary areas are concealed by metal sliding doors, on which patterns formed by oxidation of different metal powders resemble a traditional Chinese green landscape painting. The enclosed bar counter is made of hot-rolled steel plates. The booths are upholstered in bright orange, bringing a vibrant and warm atmosphere to the space.

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