Page 95 - AIT0623_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Neri&Hu, CN-Shanghai
Bauherr • Client Blue Bottle Coffee, US-Oakland
Standort • Location CN-Shanghai
Nutzfläche • Floor space 175 m 2
Fotos • Photos Zhu Runzi, CN-Shanghai
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 142

BLUE BOTTLE CAFÉ

IN SHANGHAI

The old Shanghai, as it once was for a long time
before skyscrapers rapidly replaced the historic buil-
dings, can only still be recreated in a few places in
China’s largest city. Neri&Hu planned the Blue Bottle
1 3 8
coffee bar right in a listed area in the central Jing’an
District. In the nostalgic flair of the imposing old
building, you can enjoy a journey back in time.

T hey once shaped Shanghai: in the 1930s, more than half of the city
7 consisted of shikumen – long “Chinese terraced houses” with nar-
row courtyards in between. This dense form of development branches
off like ridges from public alleys which are characterized by beautiful
6 4 5 masonry façades. Stone archways with wooden gates – the so-called shi-
kumen – form the entrance to these settlements. From the 1860s on-
wards, the government had built these dwellings for the increasing po-
pulation in the wake of the Taiping Rebellion which had driven around
half a million Chinese from the neighbouring provinces to the city of
Shanghai. Today, only a few of these typologically interesting buildings
remain. Over the decades, high-rise buildings have increasingly replaced
the shikumen. It was not until 2010 that China began to consider the pro-
6 2 6 tection of historical monuments. Zhang Yuan – Zhang’s Garden – is con-
sidered Shanghai’s largest and best-preserved shikumen community. To
preserve this heritage, the government decided to (forcibly) relocate all
residents in 2018. After four years of renovation, the area was open to
the public again in early December last year. In the shadow of the
Grundriss • Floor plan neighbouring skyscrapers, a new luxury commercial district is to be built
by 2026. Neri&Hu have already completed the Blue Bottle café in one of
1 Eingang Straße • Street entry 5 SB-Station • Self service station
2 Eingang Atrium • Atrium entry 6 Café-Lounge • Coffee lounge the former residential buildings. Brick façades and historic wooden
3 Shop • Merchandise 7 Büro des Managers • Manager room doors and windows exude the charm of the past. The café bar is located
4 Bar • Bar 8 Küche • Kitchen
under a simple steel construction. It looks like a stall in a market hall.
Surrounded by the existing brickwork, the new implant sets a counter-
point in light material – just as pure, raw and simple. The sitting options
and the tables installed along the façades are meant to recall the social
life in the shikumen. Reused, old furniture and new furnishings mix ana-
logically with the (little) old and (much) new in Shanghai today. When it
comes to the details of the new coffee bar, Neri&Hu took their inspiration
from how the former tenants used to ingeniously extend their cramped
living space out into the courtyards: archaic-looking metal straps laid
around the supports serve to fasten small shelves. Over a cup of coffee
Schnitt • Section or tea, the former life in the shikumen comes alive again.

AIT 6.2023 • 095