Teabank

Shenzhen, China

Architects: Crossboundaries

Location: Shenzhen, China
Year: 2015
Client: Shenzhen Shenbao Industrial Co. Ltd, 深圳市深宝实业股份有限公司
Team: Binke Lenhardt, DONG Hao, Cynthia Cui, Maria Francesca Origa, Felix Amiss, Natalie Bennett, Anna Pipili, Sidonie Kade
Collaborators: Shenzhen Artmost Design and Construction Co., Ltd

A tea house awash with apentagonal pattern that defies the grid of the surrounding buildings, simulating a winding journey through tea fields - setting the scene for both a work break tea to-go and a get-away from the virtual world for tech professionals.

WINDING THROUGH IMAGINED TEA FIELDS

Situated amidst tech corporations in the new Shenzhen Software Industrial Base, Teabank is a metropolitan tea-life experiencefocused store of convenience and leisure.The flagship offline store completing its ecommerce with a brick-and-mortar tea experience.

The pentagons, when multiplied, can be both rigid and organic outlines, they sprout like tea plants, taking over the interior. Wood surfaces soften the geometric pentagons reinforcing a sense of growth and nature and a winding flight of stairs suspends from the ceiling,weaving customers from the fast-paced first floor.Continuing at second floor the concrete path is complemented with warm green woven vinyl.Over head the ceiling and light boxes take on the same flow, simulating a stroll through tea fields.

To the street the lofty first floor includes a long bar, indoor and outdoor seating overlooked by an intimate mezzanine.Above on the second floor, provides a space for slower-paced activities and events,including an open library, with plenty of seating for quite reading and social interactions. Outdoor, a large seating area provides a tea garden and event space, connecting to the rest of the new development.