Operated in Wuwei, Gansu Province, the Sucre Coffee Brand is the first of its kind in this small town in Northwest China, where neither coffee nor design exists in the local culture. About 2 years ago, the Sucre team invited us to reinvigorate an existing 30-year-old warehouse as their new flagship store, embedding coffee into the local life by our design.

 

The existing warehouse is located in the center of the old town, with much higher multi-story residential buildings in its immediate surroundings. The warehouse is distant from the street and mostly hidden from street view lines. It is a closed volume, with little of its content perceivable.

 

The warehouse was built in 1990, functioning as a heat supply facility for a local Party School. It consisted of a grand double height space to house the boilers, and several regular size servicing rooms. At that time, such facilities were mostly built with brick-concrete structure. This warehouse was of no exception.

 

Our initial site visit and examination of the construction drawings discovered the strong orthogonal presence of the building’s original structure frame. Our aim was to fit the desired programs into this existing framework without significantly altering the original characteristics.

 

The given programs are a conflicted duo – coffee shop and beer bar. One is meant to be grand, bright, and relaxed, while the other congested, dark, and often noisy. The grand boiler room naturally fits the needs of coffee shop. The service rooms to the south are then converted into a linear beer bar.

 

Inbetween the two spaces, a black box is inserted into the brick wall, functioning as an indication of the existence of the other space beyond the boiler room. The luminous partition on the upper part provides diffused light for both spaces.

 

The texture of the beams and columns is retained, emphasizing the structural elements as the defining character of the boiler room. The serving counter is located at the center of the space, matching the geometrical center of the beam grid. Which also results in the shortest service circulation from the functional perspective.

 

The interlaced pendant lights are geometrical derivative of the beam and column structure frame. Their overlapping changes as the viewpoint moves.

 

A Specific Façade

The climate in Northwest China is extreme and harsh. It is very dry and rarely rains. In winter, it goes below -25 degrees, while in summer it goes above 30 degrees, and sand storm commonly happens. We therefore put forward the idea of increasing the capacity of the external walls as the thermal barrier. Windows are significantly reduced, allowing daylight penetrating but blocks extra thermal energy. Thermal insulation covers the outer skin and also window frames. The façade is aesthetically simplified and responses to the climate conditions across the seasons.

 

The application of metallic paint as the outer skin makes the building immediately sculptural, escaping its surrounding environment. Emitting a cool silver luster, this gently monolithic building is a specific addition against the chaotic background of the townscape.