Located in Daning, a dense new urban area in west Shanghai, Raams Architecture Studio has designed the first Mini Cuppa tea shop. A white illustrated square module is chosen by the architects to frame the store, which serves up the popular cheese-capped tea blended with fresh milk and seasonal fruits.
The studio brings back a reinterpretation of the classic block modular system from Frank Lloyd Wright to solve the space with a singular architectural element defining the scale of the shop and creating a flexible and textured architectural interior. The blocks are stacked directly atop each other in parallel rows using magnets. The simple assembled system can adapt to future spaces of the brand creating infinite layouts and making each shop to feel similar but new and unique.
In larger sizes, the module also extends to the shop front, framing the store with three inner windows. The XL framed façade is an eye-catching element that attracts people passing by and distinguish Mini Cuppa from their neighbor’s shops.
Environmental graphic design is utilized as a way to enhance the customer experience through the visual translation of the brand ideas into the space. The use of simbology as a hidden language and art expression is chosen to create visual messages. More than 400 blocks were illustrated by creative director German Roig, who have hand-drawn unique graphic series of images that represent sensorial experiences and tea motifs.
The predominant white interiors connect to their most important beverage ingredient, the cheese, while acts as canvas for the designer illustrations.
The layout of the store is planned around a curved central 3,5m length table, inspired by traditional family in the Mediterranean culture, as well as in China, where families and friends often gather together around a large table. In the middle, a customized plant pot with greenery brings nature and acts as a semi-transparent visual division, offering a sense of privacy for customers.
Furnishings of Mini Cuppa tea shop were designed and produce by Raams Architecture Studio for AOS Furniture brand. The tea table’s mirror top reflects the trees from the outside garden and bring green to the space. The Loop-stools and Loop-chairs by the studio are upholstered in vibrant blue Kvadrat textiles and are minimal, unique & durable pieces with a feminine touch that follow the brand identity. Book-matched big slabs of pink marble are mounted on the back shop becoming the back drop of a built in blue bench, which adds a softer touch to the whole space.
Mini Cuppa tea shop is an example of multidisciplinary design that blends the languages of graphic design, architecture, art and furniture design into the Food & Beverage business.
