Superfusionlab has completed a new juice bar in Hangzhou, China. This is the first in a series of bars by the Superfusionlab for Beleaf who were originally founded in Dublin in 2012 and are now well established in the UK and Ireland. Since then, the brand has grown as a franchise extending to China with Hangzhou as its flagship bar.
In Hangzhou, colourful, bright raindrop lights hang from the ceiling of the new Juice Bar. This plays on the idea of rainwater hydrating fruits and vegetables that grow into the fresh ingredients of the nourishing juices served by Beleaf.
The raindrop lights designed by Superfusionlab are made of a stretched fabric and create an original and distinctive backdrop for the Hangzhou Beleaf bar. Their changing colours transform the mood of the interior. This was an important consideration as a focal part of the architects’ brief was to devise an animated and photogenic environment for selfies and thereby customer led social media promotion of the bar. The bar’s back-lit countertops add to this as the LEDs change colour in a way that gives the space an interactive feel.
The overall effect is of an energised and dynamic environment that attracts customers into the Juice Bar through its eye-catching and colourful shapes and surfaces. The bar is open to the rest of the shopping mall and this lack of a traditional shop window threshold creates a welcoming flow inside the space. The use of wood for the floor and other surfaces adds to this sense of uninterrupted space and provides a more organic counterpoint to the lighting and artificial materials, such as Corian, that have been used for the fitted furniture.