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Architects: RoarcRenew
- Area: 280 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Wen Studio, Roarc Renew
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Lead Architect: Zhenqi Bai
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Construction Consultant: EMCC, Chenghua Zhang
Designing is mostly about interpreting. Saturnbird first grabbed attention of Roarc Renew because of its unique Chinese name - Sandunban (Three and a half). If we break it up, it means three meals for the body and half meal for the soul. What a true reflection of the living conditions of most people! Whether it reflects full implications of the brand is unknown for me, but I am sure this is part of the brand story. From my personal interpretation, the brand is trying to tell us the relationship between the body and the soul, a quite interesting topic. Three meals a day for the body, and a half meal of coffee for the soul.
This kind of interpretation is indeed realism touch with symbolism characteristic. So if soul refers to nature, then the body obviously means the man. If we let nature take its course, then Daoist ideology Nature and Man in One comes to our mind. Talking about the Daoist, three principles are the keys:
1. In pursuit of wisdom, everyday something is dropped, namely less and simpler.
2. Taoism follows nature, namely law of nature.
3. Acts where the knowledge indicates, that is, be your true self.
The interpretation of Roarc Renew are as follows,
1. We use Arabic numbers to indicate the roast level from to the lightest to the darkest, which is a simple expression of Spatial-temporal reasoning.
2. A co-brand cooperation with independent barista, which is the law of nature in the coffee industry.
3. Help protect the environment by recycling and we walk the talk.
Plan—Simpler, principle, and a true self with a special background. But what does a special background mean? A special background is the setting and temperament of a design, and we need to find the principles and true self there in a simpler way. Concession is a principle that follows the law of nature. We make room for others in the floor plan.Saturnbird Anfu Store sits along Anfu Road, a crowded street full of social media influencers. Saturnbird shows its utmost kindness by making concession a space of 50 ㎡ for outdoor activities. Making concession to share is also a principle we’d like to follow.
Impression—Practice of Taoism in a restricted space. The key to practice of Taoism in a restricted space lies in being simpler and true self. Mankind created the space with rooms made of concrete. These kinds of spaces offer sheltering to the mankind. The space became a form of Taoism that is independent of human will. You find the space thanks to concrete, so the space deserves respect from the mankind. Designing and renovating a space can be like a long journey, but the first step is how we respect the disciplined space with our practice. Practice to the space means repairing. The activities of ash-shoveling, patching, puttying and cleaning is a kind of practice to different material on each inch of the space. The ones who have a good practice always find total comfort in life. A practice to the space brings similar comfort. We need to respect the space and repair every flaw on the wall with no single extra action. Taking a much simpler approach and we will naturally find our true self.
Polishing of a Space. A polished space is the collision of principle between an uncultivated space. Within the law of the jungle, you find social attribute and natural attribute in the space. With this project, the original space can be seen as outcome of the nature. We need materials and principle to polish it before it can be of service to the mankind. Roarc Renew always have one principle in mind, be simple. Every detail counts for us when working on the project, but we leave no marks on it upon its finish. A good design should not bring any burden to a space only to meet certain need.
Talking about materials and principle, materials refer to brick and block while principle brings order to the space.
1.Rammed-earth brick was used to polish the irregular concrete wall.
2.Terazzo slab was used to decorate the uncovered ground.
3.Corrugated paper brick offers commercial function for the space.
Three kinds of brick. Rammed-earth brick: The process of earth to brick is the first step of the polishment.A rammed-earth brick is a purely handmade brick. The surface presents the texture of the earth, and then filling the clay with a ruler mould before tightening it with a hand rammer. Rammed-earth brick was used to fill the space between the concrete beam frame and the wall with the traditional brick construction method. So the rammed-earth brick is the surface layer as well as the base layer. The size scale of the brick lays out the first order of the space. The joints between the bricks are tight and natural, rebuilding the order of the space. As to the concrete wall opposite of the brick wall, we rebuild a new formwork with grouting filled. Small gaps were specially left on the newly built concrete wall, coordinating with the repaired concrete beam frame.
Terrazzo Slab: Terazzo slab is a high polymer material with similar features to Waterstone, the aggregate and marl can be custom-made separately. What distinguishes it with others is its strong resistance to staining as the surface underwent a 2000+ ton of hydraulic pressure treatment, while a normal Waterstone can only sustain a pressure of 200 ton. The terrazzo slab has a huge size in 3000x1800, forming the floor style for the space. With lines of slab joints, the rammed-earth brick on the wall, beam frame network, pipeline system, a second order for the space that was a total comfort to the eyes were established.
Corrugated paper brick:Corrugated paper brick pose with a lot of advantages, which is light-weighted, environment-friendly, solid and reliable, easy-to-cut, and cost-effective. We bring layer texture to the paper brick with CNC cutting technique. Cutting to the sides of brick leaves a natural constructional texture. The pierced triangle has a good compression resistance as stress enforced on it was evenly distributed. The paper brick is very light-weighted as there were many small triangles on it. The corrugated paper brick also serves as the package of the brand’s product. It is good looking when on display and comfortable holding in the hands. In the perspective of the whole space, the paper brick extends the order that Rammed-earth brick brings. Moreover, the paper brick was endowed with commercial function. Roarc Renew never thought of designing packages for products, but this one coincides perfectly with the need of our design for the space.
Module and the furniture system
Module system and the furniture (unit: mm)
With the architectural logic of module, it offers various possibility for the layout of the space so that differentiated functions can be created based on it.
a. The goodwill showed by the steel barrier at the entrance. The steel barrier is motor-driven that allows free flow of wind from both sides. Composed of 20 hinge structures sized at 600*1400, the steel barrier door is there only for the consideration of safety after business hours. Indeed, we’d like it stay opening whole day long so that the 50 square meter space will always be available for the passer-by. After business hour, passengers can see inside from the steel barrier and feel the charming flavour of cocoa beans.
b. Simple logic on the store sign. Unlike most store signs with plenty of information, the store sign stays true to the brand identity of being simple, which is putting stamped name on the square grilling over the external façade made of aluminium-plastic panel. It’s worth mentioning to explain the position of the store sign. Before renovation, there is a bracket beam made of concrete on the top of the store entrance, which outstretches about half meter to the road. We keep the design and put the store sign on top of the bracket beam.
c. The folding chair and the storable long-table.The setting logic of the entrance transitional space is to create as much space as possible for function variability. The folding chair can save space when they are not needed, and the table can act like Matryoshka to make room as well. For folding chair: a 18 mm thick and 990 mm long board mounted on beam with customized fastener and the rod pivot on the board will help it unfold. There are 55 of them in the space. In order to prevent injury brought by misoperation, there is a buckle latch and a customized M6 screw on the back of the board to hold it tight. Storable long-table: There are four chairs with respective size of 1900*360, 1450*360, 1000*360 and 450*360 so that they can be stacked together. Carpenter's clamps were used to fasten the grilling lateral plate and the table top. And T shape landing legs were firmly soldered to make sure an excellent bearing capacity.
d. Coffee table that can be automatic back-bit.Coffee table: a coffee table is sized at 400*400 mm but once it was changed to exhibition table, the size can be 800*400 mm by rotating the support arm on the side of the table. There were foot master casters on each leg of the coffee table. With the magnetic stripe underneath the table and strong magnetic force on the side of the table, every coffee table can find its way back to the calibrated position. Exhibition table: with the hidden switch bolt under the table top the surface area of the table can be extended. There were also external hooks in the grille board of the cabinet. On the other side of the flank there were several spring guide drawers for exhibition, the length of which is progressive increasing from the top to the bottom.
e. Coffee stool can grow in height. Different heights of the coffee stools can work for three functions. A height of 350 mm stool can be an small exhibition table. A height of 400 mm stool can be comfortable to sit. A height of 450 mm stool can be useful as a mini-bar. With handle sliding in the steel pipe, the height of the coffee stool will be adjusted accordingly. To safeguard the stool, there were aligned piercing on inside and outside steel pipe, fastened by handle with screw thread. There was a stainless rail on the bottom box to support the foot.
f. Flexible frame system made of paper brick. The display rack is a display system with good flexibility. Changing Inserting mortise and tenon joint method in a modular system can bring various display scenes. The board base is pre-embedded and fixed with the wall by four stainless steel joints while the exhibition board is separated from the back wall. The lower connecting piece has a bolt node, and the upper connecting piece has a buckle node, so that quick disassembly and assembly of the exhibition board can be realized in a minute. The display rack is composed of 30 sets of cross-shaped stainless steel suspension arms supported by tenon and tenon joints. The suspension arms are composed of 3 pieces of special-shaped stainless steel plates with silicone anti-collision buckles sealed at the ends. The boom socket is equipped with a stainless steel elastic buckle to lock/unlock the boom. The display rack can also be extended with different expansion accessories to realize different forms of display on the exhibition wall, such as electronic screens, display light boxes, etc.
g. Breathable glass doors. The 5 folding glass doors have a large partition space of 900*3200, which can be operated with a door grip in diameter of 150. The metal grip is fixed on the door with M4 screw kit, presenting a unique door handle style for the space. These 5 glass doors are the real physical boundaries between indoor and outdoor. But even if it is a glass partition, we still hope that such physical boundary resembles something with life force. Therefore, we help the door breathes while it is closed. Whenever night comes, faint light comes through the gate fence, bringing a sense of breathing that resonates with this field.
2. Reflection Evolve Redesign. This second stage is about the reflection and redesigning we’ve made after the opening so that it evolves with actual needs. It is the consensus both the brand and us holds that Into the force Concept Store should be capable of self-evolving. With observation and double-checking, we made some adjustments to the first version of the design. The second version design focuses on retail displaying system, the design language of which inherits that of the first design version.
Storage table: Storage table comes to mind because of the commercial activities. After months of operation, it is decided that the column span where the storage table lays can be served as the semipermanent retail space. Meanwhile, the increase of retail goods and sales volume requires a bigger exhibition stand with greater storage capability. An eyeful of goodies on the big platform. A meticulous layout on the small table top.
The fourth type of brick. We have chosen rammed-earth bricks for the wall; terrazzo bricks for the floor and paper bricks for the shelf. Finally clear bricks for the table. Here a clear form takes the place of bold outlines.
After months of operation, it is decided that there should be a reading area in the space. So we hung two newspaper rack on the two columns. The rack can also hold poster and brochure. The umbrella stand is needed to collect the umbrella in rainy days. The stand can take both long-handled umbrella and foldable umbrella. It starts with Saturnbird Coffee and ends with IntotheForce. The project experience is quite interesting for us. An interior design is not our ultimate accomplishment. The construction Roarc Renew is trying to build is a space full of openness in the structure system.
