Although China‘s first-tier cities remain unrivalled fashion and lifestyle hubs, the good life and all its perks have trickled down for quite some time to provincial cities nationwide, including Wuxi. Only a two-hour car drive west of neighbouring Shanghai, the city is an affluent spin-off which has become home to an increasing number of contemporary hospitality establishments that reflect this stature. In the latter category falls 1hu, a newly opened specialty bar with an in-house beer brewery. Occupying a 180 sqm. (1,938 sq.ft.) space on the ground floor of a modern structure in Xuelang Town, a new industrial district of the city, the interior sees a design by Chinese practice Duality Design. The setting undeniably oozes a brewery vibe, given the fact that the on-site brewery, with its gleaming stainless steel fermentation tanks and transportation pipes, has been put front and centre.
As a matter of fact, the latter has been used as a backdrop, albeit encased in floor-to-ceiling glass in a separate, seemingly inserted section of the venue. 1hu‘s elongated bar playfully boasts three supporting plinths with two counter tops connecting them, one for bartender’s operation, the other for guests dining. Additional seating comes in the form of sofas which mimic stacked malt bags, and use product designer and interior architect Christiane Högner‘s cushioned sofa technique. The façade of the 1hu bar is encased in floor-to-ceiling glass on three sides which can be retracted, blurring the boundaries between the interior and exterior. Next to the aforementioned glass and steel, the material palette includes acid-washed concrete, oak and an earthy-toned sand floor, and all signal the brewing tradition of ‘processed nature’. © superfuture
1hu
Qingshu Dao, Building 1, 1-1-2 Shop (Xuelang Town)
214132 Wuxi
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