Near the Northeast 5th Ring Road in Beijing, the project site is part of a once thriving industrial area with its own train depot called the Langyuan Station. In the past, it was used for transporting goods in and out of Beijing.
Today the neighborhood is undergoing a transitional phase, and Neri&Hu was called upon to design the adaptive reuse of an old warehouse building once used for cotton textile production for the main office and retail concept store for the historical Beijing pastry brand called Lao Ding Feng founded in 1911.
The original brick structure is composed of a main warehouse and three annex buildings, plus a courtyard garden. For projects like this, Neri&Hu’s strategy always begins with a thorough investigation of what parts of the building at present may be kept and restored, while any new additions should not only respect the existing, but also stand in contrast to it, so that a clear distinction may be drawn between old and new.
The design concept is inspired in part by the client’s main product, traditional Chinese style pastries often formed in a decorative mold — the notion that a container may hold or form the shape of its contents within. Here, a new cast concrete object is molded into the old brick shell, its various openings and negative spaces form the main retail, gallery and office spaces. After pouring the concrete and allowing it to cure, specialized craftsmen then bush-hammer it for a soft textural quality that both contrasts with and also compliments the old bricks. In certain moments, the new inner concrete will seep out and appear on the facade to fill in the voids or indicate new access points. The gap spaces between the new object and the original shell become flexible areas for a cafe and multipurpose lobby. The ground floor contains the exhibition area, the flagship store, the garden and the cafe while the second floor is mainly the head office.
Traversing through the new concrete object and experiencing the interstitial spaces between the new insertion and the old building brings a sense of connectivity between past, present, and future and gives this historical Beijing pastry brand a new home.
■建築概要
Recast
Lao Ding Feng Beijing
Location: Beijing
Date: 2021- 2022
Client: Beijing Lao Ding Feng Food Co., LTD
Project type: Architecture, interior, product and graphic design
Site area: 1,345 sqm
Building floor area: 974 sqm
Gross area: 1,580 sqm
Partners-in-charge: Lyndon Neri, Rossana Hu
Associate-in-charge: Zhao Lei
Design team: Ivy Feng, Tian Hua, Wenbo Da, Joy Han, Mingxuan Wei, Nicolas Fardet, July Huang，Lyuqitiao Wang
Architecture design: Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
Interior design: Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
FF&E design: Design Republic
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Consultant
LDI: Questing Building (Beijing) Technology Co., LTD
Lighting: Linea Light (China) CO., LTD.
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Contractor
General contractor: Beijing Jianyan Urban Renewal Engineering Technology Co. LTD.
【ap job更新】 予算規模の大きい住宅や別荘等を手掛け、多くの建て主に賛同される「Tai and Associates」が、設計スタッフ（経験者・既卒・2023年新卒）を募集中【ap job更新】 予算規模の大きい住宅や別荘等を手掛け、多くの建て主に賛同される「Tai and Associates」が、設計スタッフ（経験者・既卒・2023年新卒）を募集中
Tai and Associatesは、建築を通じて「特別な体験」をデザインしています。
建て主がその建築に求めているものを理解し、見出し、解釈し、それを設計に昇華させる。
これは建築設計では当然のことですが、その結果建築から得られる体験が特別でなくては、私たちに依頼していただく意味がありません。Tai and Assoiatesに依頼するのだから、建て主の想像を上回る体験が得られるはず、その期待に応えることが私たちの使命であり、そのためのノウハウを蓄積しています。
