Even in the most expensive locations, there is "corner space".
The location of the cake shop, Wuhan International Square was once the "Top Ten Shopping Malls in China" after liberation: Sino-Soviet Friendship Shopping Mall. According to statistics, today's "Wuhan International Square" has become the largest gathering place of luxury goods in China, with the sales of many cosmetics, women's clothing and jewelry brands ranking first in the country.
And under the big steps leading to the sunken plaza of the shopping mall is the space left over from this extreme consumption surplus. For years it could only be used as an equipment room and utility room, leaving the palatial ground-floor entrance facing the gloom and damp. Until the shopping mall decided to use this small space as a store for rent, because it is very negative in section, but very important in plan.
In order to activate this narrow corner space, we start from the abstract form, because we do not want to add any "enclosing" operation to define a closed small environment, but use concise formal language to integrate the surrounding environment.
All the functions of the cake shop are integrated into two L shapes: on the one hand, they "hold" the big steps in a vertical direction, one of which is even deliberately tilted perpendicular to the bottom of the steps, creating a strong visual force relationship; On the other hand, they spread out horizontally to form tables, fully occupying the two long sides of the rectangular plane, forming the internal flow line from the side, integrated with the circular flow line of the sunken square.
In terms of spatial structure, the big step and even the whole sunken square are incorporated into the formal logic of the cake shop, thus transforming the original corner space into the most important node.
In response to the low, dark and irregular trapezoidal section of the store, we made the suspended ceiling a mirror material that follows the slope of the big steps, projecting the goods on the counter onto the front facade.
And under the roof, in order to give the hard geometry a lovely, soft appearance. We made two L-shaped blocks into a patisserie texture: orange sandstone in the front, milky stone in the back; One was carved into a “camela”, and one was covered in cakes. Under the unfavorable condition that the door head is blocked, the vertical space is fully used to display the signs and products of the shop.
The sculptural orange block stands on the central axis of the sunken circular square, making the main entrance and exit of the mall finally have the scene. The afternoon sun would glide down the edge of the steps, leaving a streak of gold on the bright orange, and the atmosphere beneath the steps seemed to brighten.
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