Chinese design firm CUN Design has designed a flagship store for tea brand Willchá in Beijing, China
with strong geometric shapes, green and yellow color palette because the color palette itself represents the color of the brand.
Design Features
Named Willch á Flagship Store, the interiors of 120 square meters are designed like a “movie scene”.
The interior is told by a girl like a visitor from heaven sitting quietly there,
bathing in the slightly yellowish light and silently telling the story of the whole place.
At the end of 2021, the founding team of Willchá CUN Design was commissioned to design a new flagship store for its brand.
Through this task, the studio conducted research and analysis on its products and target customers, respectively.
Willchá’s products are different from other milk teas on the market, and all of their raw materials are derived from natural tea leaves.
Their concept focuses on healthy tea drinking + scientific tea making, and interestingly,
the leading customer group they encounter is post-1990s and post-twentieth century 20-35 year olds.
In fact, in recent years, more and more young people have begun to pay attention to their health and gradually join the army of healthy diets,
which also makes new tea and light tea drinks gradually replace milk tea, and the fashion has become beloved in the “Generation Z” crowd.
Therefore, CUN has made a completely innovative attempt in the space based on retaining and promoting the charm of the WILLchá brand,
“Leading a healthy lifestyle for contemporary youth”.
Space
Willchá’s flagship store doesn’t take up much space, but this small space has a multi-level spatial expression.
In planning the plan, the studio used the geometric composition method to divide an area of 100 square meters into a complex commercial body with nine spatial functions.
The space not only has enough space for a kitchen, storage room and staff lounge,
but also has an ordering area, dining area, DIY tea making area, customer service bar,
tea display and retail area, this really demonstrates Willchá’s standing as a “new fashion space for tea experience”.
The feeling of gravity is intensified by these magical geometries in space,
your mind jumps from the ground and comes to the massive universe, in front of you are vast rivers of stars.
Looking back, you can see an image like a movie scene:
the girl is like a visitor from heaven sitting quietly there, bathing in a little yellow light, silently telling the story of the whole place.
Standing on the central aisle, you can see a touch of green in the distance.
This is Willchá’s trademark visual color, then the studio used it as a theme color in the space,
thus defining Willchá’s first impression: natural and pure.
Entering the store from the outside, you can strongly feel the contrast of the field caused by the change of space from the low-rise green,
grid-like structures, and the transition to the interior with a high ceiling.
The continuity of materials and colors ensures the coherence of the spatial feeling,
and the sudden change in heights brings in endless perceptions about the space,
making people feel enlightened between the steps from outside to inside.
Interior design of Willch’s flagship tea shop á like a movie scene in China
When inside, you can see a green upper surface, like a giant leaf,
starting at the intersection of the walls and ceiling,
extending 2.8 to 5.5 meters above the ground and meeting the light source at its highest point perfectly.
The cool light on top, combined with the warm light emitted by the ambient light strips,
makes the entire space filled with layers and three-dimensionality, like a scene in a fantasy.
Design material
All the wall surfaces and furniture are all made of light gray oak veneer,
which looks very classy and comfortable under the reflection of the warm interior lighting.
The floor material is black terrazzo, this highly reflective material reflects the entire space,
and the texture of the array-like shelves on the wall has been eliminated, leaving only stars multiplying on the floor.
The vertex of the leaf, the hull side of the wood, the foot of the stone,
the so-called “being among the grass and trees” – a small space, reflecting the vast nature.
Echoing Willchá’s slogan – “oriental light tea”, the designers incorporated oriental elements into the space,
and the entire facade of the space resembles architecture with oriental aesthetics,
full of mystery and cosmopolitanism.
The horizontal grille under the light box at the head of the entrance door appears to come from the architectural element of the “friezes”,
but the turns and intersections are not connected.
The separate shape adds a unique aesthetic to the design,
creating a long-term visual appearance of the brand.
The ideas of the columned windows at the door and the folded inner surface of the wall display system are derived from the oriental ‘folding fan’ element.
The designers use a cohesive method to coordinate all the displays on the wall,
so that the same materials and performance elements are used throughout,
and unique designs such as “acrylic U-frame” are added to make the entire height not only uniform,
stunning, and pure, but also different about others.
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