This project is a store renovation for the furniture brand "Lost and Found" located in Guozijian Street, a historic district in Beijing. As nowadays, more and more people tends to live alone, the concept of a traditional family gradually disintegrated, and the city's public space is becoming another “home” for people. Under such contexts, the renovation intends to bring the sense of "home" into the store, and to introduce a new vision for the future commercial space that connects people with urban public space.
By adding an aIc, the traditional single-storey siheyuan building is transformed to a loft while most of the original wooden structure were retained. The indoor garden in the centre of the building divides the whole space into four independent areas - living room, dining room, bedroom and a study. Since all the rooms open up to the indoor courtyard, each space benefits from the sunlight that coming through the large skylight above and gets a view of the indoor garden.
Natural materials are used in all areas such as terrazzo floor, diatom mud wall paint, and wooden furnitures. The rough texture and the plain look bring a warm and friendly feeling to people, waking up people's initial memories and senses of home and family.
Architects: Shuhei Aoyama,Yoko Fujii, Jingjing Tang, Lingzi Liu / B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio