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Basic Coffee

Tim Kwan / Office AIO

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Client
Basic Coffee
Floor area
30.00 ㎡
Completion
2019

Occupying a 30sqm corner of a restored historic building, Basic Coffee is a key tenant of a co-working hub with a goal to activate the newly gentrified commercial zone of XianYuKou, Beijing, through providing quality artisan coffee beverages to its neighbours and visiting tourists.
The design focuses on establishing a series of “framed views” into the café, by orchestrating a play of light and obscurity.
This sense of mystery and curiosity is made possible by a concentric spatial organisation, originated from a concealed coffee-making area, wrapped by a ‘veiled’ entry gallery and a curved seating area on the outermost layer.
The journey begins with entering into a thin slice of volume enveloped by a suspended aluminium perforated screen above the bar bench, revealing a partial view of the seating area. Coffee order takes place at the junction between entry gallery and the large window facing the street, where the barista is strategically positioned to serve both dine-in and takeaway customers, sculpted as an exaggerated one-point perspective scene. A fissure is created adjacent to an illuminating wall, dramatising the display of pour-over coffee preperation.
Like a live ad, these “framed views” expose different motions, “performed” by all parties in the cafe. The suggestiveness in partially concealed acts of indulging in coffee, muffled chatters, and sound and smells of coffee-making, arouse one’s curiosity and appetite for various beverages and bites.