(via) The design team at Warsaw/Shanghai’s Four-O-Nine studios really turned the lights on with their bright vision for the 1,000 sqft Cafe 27 in Beijing. It was conceived as a sustainably-minded garden pavilion inside an open concept greenhouse.

A number of elements simultaneously defined the architectural expression and interior environmental experience. A green-wall passively purifies Beijing’s polluted air as it makes its way inside. A massive ceramic bar with pastry display anchors the interior seating arrangement. Combined with the terrazzo flooring, generating a thermal mass that gradually and passively heats the space in the winter. In the summer the exterior wood trellis shades the glass structure reducing undesirable heat gain, while diffusing direct sunlight to create a thermally comfortable and optically dramatic space inside.

Completing the interior, a pixilated hut-like elevation clad in Ash batons provides acoustic baffling while housing a pastry kitchen (visible through a large glass pane), the mechanical system, the public restrooms and dry storage. Finally, the interior and exterior are connected through a series pivoting doors further blurring the boundary between the indoor and outdoor experience of the café.

Where would we like to see it fit in Vancouver? Somewhere bright! Facing the False Creek Flats on the east side of Station St. would be ideal (across from the backside of Torafuku). What a nice hideaway that would be!

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