An interior for the Social Media Age.
This is the first in a series of bars by the Superfusionlab for Beleaf who were originally founded in Dublin in 2012 and are now well established in the UK and Ireland. Since then, the brand has grown as a franchise extending to China with Hangzhou as its flagship bar.
In Hangzhou, colourful, bright raindrop lights hang from the ceiling of the new Juice Bar. This plays on the idea of rainwater hydrating fruits and vegetables that grow into the fresh ingredients of the nourishing juices served by Beleaf.
The raindrop lights designed by Superfusionlab are made of a stretched fabric and create an original and distinctive backdrop for the Hangzhou Beleaf bar. Their changing colours transform the mood of the interior.
This was an important consideration as a focal part of the architects’ brief was to devise an animated and photogenic environment for selfies and thereby customer led social media promotion of the bar. The bar’s back-lit countertops add to this as the LEDs change colour in a way that gives the space an interactive feel.
The overall effect is of an energised and dynamic environment that attracts customers into the Juice Bar through its eye-catching and colourful shapes and surfaces. The bar is open to the rest of the shopping mall and this lack of a traditional shop window threshold creates a welcoming flow inside the space.
The use of wood for the floor and other surfaces adds to this sense of uninterrupted space and provides a more organic counterpoint to the lighting and artificial materials, such as Corian, that have been used for the fitted furniture.
Layout
The shop is divided into two zones, serving and seating. A simple red leather upholstered sofa provides the main seating area while a window seat appears to float on one side allowing visitors to sit and enjoy their juice. One corner of the shop is reserved for the storage of fresh fruits and vegetables consumed during the day, with direct access to the area behind the counter.
“We enjoyed this project because it gave us an opportunity to think about the role of surface as something that comes to life and enriches our senses. Too often walls, floors and ceilings areneutral and even dead space whereas we see them as full of opportunity to make something innovative or crafted and ideally both.” – Lida Charsouli and Nathaniel Kolbe says.
Later this year Superfusionlab will also complete two Beleaf bars in the UK in Milton Keynes and Derby.
About Superfusionlab
Founded in 2005 by Nathaniel Kolbe and Lida Charsouli, Superfusionlab is an international architecture studio based in London. Active in teaching and research, the studio’s approach is nonetheless very hands-on with a firm understanding of craft even when pushing the boundaries of production through design innovation. Kolbe and Charsouli share an interest in how surface and materiality inform design. Both view fashion as a compelling form of inspiration in how the latest building technologies are used to design three-dimensional forms. The pair and their team are experienced in innovative modelling techniques and the use of parametric tools but believe that simple solutions offer the best response to complex issues. Completed projects consist of apartments, private homes, an eco-resort as well as UK and overseas shops for an international juice bar brand. Superfusionlab’s work has been exhibited widely including at the Royal Academy and the studio has also designed exhibition concepts and interactive experiences for clients, for example, American Express and Kew Gardens in London.
