SanYuanLi Food Market Store: Grid Coffee

The café situated within the SanYuanLi Food Market in Beijing was designed by B.L.U.E. Architecture, aiming to blend traditional market culture with contemporary urban sensibilities, fostering community revitalization and urban connections.

This café is situated within the SanYuanLi Food Market in Beijing.

Unlike traditional markets, the SanYuanLi Food Market serves the entire SanYuanLi community and, due to its proximity to the embassy district and its southern orientation towards the hotel-lined banks of the LiangMa River, it enjoys a unique geographical position, creating a distinctive atmosphere that set it apart from ordinary markets.

Reflecting traditional living scenes in contemporary urban settings, it radiates a lively energy amidst the interplay of conflict and integration.

Positioned at the northern entrance of the marketplace, one side of the café faces the street, while the other side serves as the initial retail focal point, capturing the attention of passerby.

Despite its modest 25 square meters footprint, the café undeniably commands a significant nodal space.

In his book ‘Collage City,’ American architectural theorist Colin Rowe introduced the concept of ‘contextualism,’ asserting that cities embody the accumulation of architecture from various historical stages.

Despite serving as a medium for collective memories, cities have become increasingly unfamiliar and alien with the progression of urbanization.

Incremental developments aimed at addressing longstanding issues within urban blocks have, however, led to the weakening of distinctive features such as folk street market culture.

The lively scenes of daily life lose their vibrancy, supplanted by indifferent and impersonal spatial norms.

With this design, our objective is to initiate a discourse on street, community revitalization, and urban connections, aiming to explore innovative approaches to communal public life.

Leveraging the exceptional location and distinctive site constraints, this project employs a dual-track design approach.

Our focus is on establishing both the ‘uniqueness’ and ‘everyday sensibility’ of the community space, seamlessly integrating the distinctive spatial ambiance into daily life.

Given the unique refinement and fashion sensibilities inherent in the SanYuanLi Market, coupled with the distinctive stand-and-sip and all-you-can-eat coffee experience offered by Grid Coffee, establishing a distinctive ambiance is crucial for this project.

The entrance façade features what appears to be a random and fortuitous design, highlighting a naturalistic and artistic sensibility.

The shape formed by the concrete resembles a framing element, capturing people in the market as they relax and enjoy coffee.

The handcrafted copper door, in contrast with the rough and weighty concrete, creates a visually striking contrast, allowing it to stand out in the lively street scene without dominating the overall space.