JANUS is a whisky and cocktail bar with a social aspect. Our client had two demands: one was that the audience should not interpret this place according to the literal meaning of JANUS or their traditional concepts, and the other was that the audience should have more than two different spatial experiences in this place. These different spatial experiences combine as an integral whole rather than to be independent ones.

According to the operational function of the project, the first floor is the supporting space and the second floor is the main venue. The first floor is loose, open, relaxed which serves coffee. The seating is relatively spacious. Bar counter and loose seating area on the second floor is different, more compact but not crowded. The sense of distance between people familiar or unfamiliar is more subtle. We hope more conversation and stories can happen there.

When I first went to the site for mapping, I was very excited and surprised by the light on the second floor, when the sunlight was pouring down from the daylight opening. My first reaction was that the place already has distinctive features that can bring audiences different moods, and experiences in the daytime and night-time. I then began to conceptualise how to create two or more different atmospheres in the space. Creating is the art of making a meaningful whole out of individual components, but of course, this is based on a floor plan.

Geometry can help us better deal with space and layout inside and outside the building, but that's not the point. I started to know the birth of the whisky bar and conceptualise all kinds of possibilities of forms, symbols and images from an aesthetic and practical point of view.

At this point, I began to take a step back and think about the big picture. What exactly are we talking about when we talk about spatial ambience? Is it sunlight, air, sound, materials, textures, or colours? I began to think about the overall relevance of the façade in relation to the first and second floors. They are at once traditional, strong and thick, even a little archaic and they are at the same time receptive, inclusive, interesting and experimental. I tried to use postmodernism to summarise the atmosphere created inside and outside the building.

I decided to create the façade with clean and simple geometric blocks, which is the style of contemporary. But it also has classical features in the details. To this point I felt that these designs were not enough because the conflict had not reached its climax. So I added a cantilever platform to place a classical sculpture. It was at this point that I felt the importance of such design planning came to the fore. The pure black and hard blocks together with the classical sculpture bring the sense of power and make it attractive. Such not complicated aesthetics give audiences more possibilities to imagine.