ARCHITECTURAL FOCUS
THREE SPATIAL DESIGNS
ATELIER MOO
This is a set of spatial designs within the Huangyan Grottoes scenic area in Taizhou, Zhejiang. The renovation work was completed by architect Xu Tiantian’ s team. Our design task was to transform three areas into a cafe, a multifunctional design store, and a pop-up shop for an indie brand. Due to schedule pressures, no disruptive adjustments could be made to the completed infrastructure on site, such as paving and utility lines. One strategy is to use modular assembled furniture units as the main means of spatial organization. All the furniture is not fixed to the ground or stone walls, to reduce the damage to the original environment, also to minimize the on-site work, and make the construction easier and faster. Another strategy is to use as few units as possible to create three different spatial experiences by different combinations of the furniture units.
First, we decided to use only one material, from the perspective of contrasting with the grottoes and durability, we chose anodized aluminum, which has a silver-white color, and smooth, abstract texture, contrasting with the rough texture of the stone walls. Also, we limited the variety of furniture unit types to a minimum. Three heights of 450mm, 900mm, and 1800mm were set, corresponding to three types of furniture: chair, table, and shelf.
The chair legs and surfaces can be combined in different ways to create two states of use: a linear bench and a curved bench. The tabletops are trapezoidal, with the shorter edges facing one side to create a curved bar, while combining longer and shorter edges forms a linear bar. Tabletops and legs can be combined both parallel and perpendicularly, and can be adjusted as needed when the leg space is used as storage space.
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