Leave a Light for The Corner of The City to Enjoy Coffee

In the winter of 2019, Suzao met two baristas and was commissioned to design their coffee shop by the green lake in Kunming. What attracts us most about this project is that the small shop faces the street and is very independent. We thought this was an opportunity to do something for the city street interface.

▲Kunming Cuihu, No. 55 Honghua Bridge, leisure coffee. © Ce Wang

Green Lake in Kunming

Green Lake is the core of the most leisurely cultural area in Kunming. The literati and scholars in history, and everyone in culture have a special liking for Green Lake. Green Lake is to Kunming just like West Lake is to Hangzhou. Without Green Lake, Kunming would not be called Kunming is here. Pedestrians who pass by Green Lake become tourists. Every Kunming person has his own Green Lake complex.

▲Winter Green Lake©Long Zhiling

Design idle

Kunming's urban status is leisurely, slow and comfortable, so the cafe by the green lake is named "Xianlai". The store is very independent, small, and irregular in shape, presenting an irregular triangular plane. To integrate the chaos of the space in a simple way, we cut a circular arc in a triangular plane and the whole space is divided into two, one side is the guest area, and the other is the bar/storage room/private room.

▲ Original building©Suzao

▲ Design concept: use a corner of the flavor wheel

▲ Design rendering ©Suzao

▲ Design Sketch ©Suzao

▲ Design generation ©Suzao

▲ Space composition ©Suzao

▲ Behind the folding wall facing the entrance passage is the bathroom, the folding wall is not only a screen but also the visual center of gravity of the space © Ce Wang

▲ Reshaping the space plane with half a circular arc is the focus of the whole design. The sharp corners of other interior walls also need to echo the circular arc design chamfering, making the design holistic © Ce Wang

▲ Three "frames" are made on the façade along the street, namely the bar counter frame with folding windows, the door frame, and the booth window frame. The corresponding functions form the facade © Ce Wang

Leisurely coffee leaves a light for the corner of the city , warming the city at night.