Location: Beijing, China.

Architect: Neri&Hu.

Neri&Hu has designed the adaptive reuse of an old warehouse building for the main office and retail concept store for the historical Beijing pastry brand called Lao Ding Feng. The original brick structure is composed of a main warehouse and three annex buildings, plus a courtyard garden. The design concept is inspired in part by the client’s main product, traditional Chinese style pastries often formed in a decorative mould. A new cast concrete object is molded into the old brick shell, its various openings and negative spaces form the main retail, gallery and office spaces. The ground floor contains the exhibition area, the flagship store, the garden and the cafe while the second floor is mainly the head office. The gap spaces between the new object and the original shell become flexible areas for a café and multipurpose lobby. The design brings a sense of connectivity between past, present, and future and gives this historical Beijing pastry brand a new home.

Photo credit: Zhu Runzi.