Oh, the Chinese and their tea. It’s not only a story which goes way, way back, but also one that’s intriguingly multi-faceted and deeply rooted in local culture. Banking on the innate relationship with tea, while also approaching the beloved beverage with a fresh new perspective, is the newly opened PURE NFTEA café in Shenzhen. Indeed, what’s in a name? Well, for one, given Gen Z‘s current NFT obsession, its name is an obvious pun, targeting exactly this demographic with an array of tea concoctions. Mind you, in recent years, this particular consumer group has been lured away by the coffee obsession that has swept across the planet. So, this venture is very much a bold counter offensive. Obviously, it’s not about the beverage alone, and here, a fittingly cool setting comes in to further boost the experience. The PURE NFTEA café sits on the premises of C Future City, an enormous mixed-use complex which is part of an even bigger urban redevelopment plan alongside Zhongzhou Bay.
Here, brazen modernity, in the form of a shopping centre and soaring residential towers, unapologetically fuses with an old, densely populated neighbourhood, resulting in a highly eclectic urban landscape. Occupying a 200 sqm. (2,153 sq.ft.) triangular unit on the third floor, spread across two levels, the café sees a collaborative interior design by local interior design platform YuQiang & Partners and its design agency EK Design. The space has been fully redeveloped by changing the spatial layout, combining new ideas with existing structures. By making use of the terroir of tea, the design team also transformed traditional spatial experiences, creating a visually dynamic and modern setting that aims to resonate with a young clientele’s sensibilities. The concept of ‘deconstruction’ has been applied and is evident all around, featuring seemingly incoherent structures, most notably the beams and columns, but also the booths and the bar which also showcase the joinery techniques of traditional Chinese architecture.
To tackle the limitations of the unit’s triangular shape, the design team maximised the use of the space while minimising the sense of narrowness. First, the existing spatial conditions have been utilised by adding beams, which are parallel to the triangle, to the existing columns, creating new decorative columns at the joints. Additionally, passages have been created out of the angles, thus making practical use of the corners. In such a way, an asymmetrical yet balanced frame was constructed on the horizontal plane, defining a new space in a deconstructive manner. A large mural, depicting a tea mountain enveloped in mist and drizzle, adds a traditional decorative element to the setting. The deep red hue is a nod to the soil in Yiwu, a region south of Hangzhou that’s famed for its tea. The outdoor terrace of PURE NFTEA features various seating arrangements comprised of low flexible structures, which provide both seating and partitioning, in addition to tables and chairs.
PURE NFTEA
C Future City, 9232 Binhe Dajie, Building 2, Shop 308
518048 Shenzhen
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
