Under the inevitable cycle of urban evolution, spaces at the city fringe are being rapidly buffered, renewed, paused, and recreated alongside the city expansion. The original building of this project was designed to be a private clubhouse, with its existing external and internal layout being enclosed and isolated. To effectively reuse the space as a tea restaurant through a prudent renovation, and establish new branding with an artistic and cultural vibe, are the main design challenges for this project.
At street scale, the west facade is opened up to face the row of pedestrian trees, allowing it to reconnect with the green belt in the context. The internal partition of the existing private dining booth also opens up towards the same direction to jointly share the sunlight and greenery. The mellow green of nature and the subtle shades of green used as the base tone of the interior are incorporated to form the body of the “green spectrum”. Together they create an accommodating backdrop for the tea restaurant and the artworks curated.
There are five types of seating arrangement to cater for different numbers of people and gathering events with flexibility. In the grand open space, the tables are placed perpendicularly to the full height windows at the west facade, for all the customers to enjoy the landscape via the window view. The original design was also integrated into the new with harmonious materials, patterns and line forms. Three shades of greens paints and two green toned leather furnishings are tailored to complement the existing yellow and orange dining chairs. The timber deck extends out from the full height windows to provide outdoor dining. Pedestrians are able to engage and mingle with this new tea culture space as they walk past the boulevard next to the restaurant.
Lighting adds another layer of animated colour pallet and plays an important role in this project. The low afternoon sun brings tree shadows inside, which draws a unique scenery itself. In the interior, linear indirect lights create a watercolor-like gradient effect on the wall that illustrates an abstract spatial boundary. The folds and lines of light of the curved walls and columns are intended to imitate a cave-like texture in a modern style. The thin metallic strings frame above the bar and the light stripes on the wall represent the golden drizzle, both echoing with the theme of the key artwork in the space. The contrast between the natural sunlight and artificial light of the dark green indoor highlights the vivid green that belongs to this city.
The tea restaurant is visualized as a serene cave with shades of greens, infusing an out-of-world atmosphere as an escape for urbanites, just like the “Shangri-La”, away from the noise of the secular.
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