Fashion
Beijing’s new Coffee Craft cafe takes coffee culture to the capital’s suburbs.
It is in the largely residential area of Beixuaguan, in Beijing’s northwest. Covering 400 sqm, the outlet has been designed by United Units Architects, a practice based in both Beijing and London.
While primarily a venue for specialty coffee, it also anticipates the hybrid lifestyles of today’s young generation, says Retail Design Blog. It features four specific areas – a bar, a seating area, two meeting rooms and a kitchen space – all separated by partitions crafted from a mix of vertical louvres and wire mesh, allowing for a variety of configurations.
Each space has a distinct feel while seamlessly blending with the other sections.
The bar comprises wall panels of shiny steel and capsule-shaped copper equivalents on the ceiling, while the seating area features an indoor cactus garden as a focal point. It is framed and encapsulated on one side by slabs of mirror that make it appear double its actual size. Hovering directly above is a large circle made of the same material. A Vespa scooter installation adds a quirky and frivolous touch to the austere aesthetic, says Retail Design Blog.
Coffee Craft’s menu features specialty coffee from such countries as Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia , Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya and Panama, all marked on a wooden wall plaque with a pinboard world map.
Coffee culture is not only catching on in China, but accelerating and diversifying to meet the lifestyle requirements of the country’s growing demographic of savvy consumers, says the blog.
“Obviously, this trend has manifested itself most vigorously in plush downtown neighbourhoods of the country’s booming first- and second-tier cities. The middle class continues to expand with leaps and bounds – it has doubled from 399 million to 784 million in just a decade – and coffee and modern lifestyle appreciation has grown in equal measure across suburban fringe, and increasingly in surprising contemporary form.”
