The Coffee Shed of Luxun Park | SHISUO

“Urbanization has long been seen as a process that deviates from nature. For a long time, the cost of acquiring buildings has inevitably involved burying water bodies, cutting down trees, or encroaching on fields until people have become numb. However, humans themselves originate from nature, and the desire to coexist with nature is instinctual. The Coffee Shed of Lu Xun Park reflects our contemplation on the dichotomy between artificial and natural—how man-made structures, as buildings, can coexist, symbiotically create with nature.”
Sanif

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The Artificial and Natural: Coffee Shed of Lu Xun Park

The Coffee Shed is located in a commercial street at the corner of Lu Xun Park. The site is challenging——An existing canopy with glass roof attached to the main building cannot be removed, and five trees are randomly scattered.

It is imagined as a shelter that connects the indoors and outdoors, like an abstract forest growing in a natural field formed by five plane trees. After positioning the existing trees, the column positions were calculated to ensure that the structure would not harm the trees, without the need to cut. It shows a way that how man-made structures, as buildings, can coexist, symbiotically create with nature.

The weathering steel structure serves as a unified design language that shapes both the indoor and outdoor café spaces. Indoors, the form of the roof is not driven by visual appeal but rather seeks potential equipment space within the triangular cavity between the new structure and the existing one. Outdoors, as the roof folds and gradually descends, it directs people's gaze towards the distant landscape. The red terrazzo floor resembles a floating raft, serving as a platform for activities. The entrance to the interior is deliberately hidden within the "forest".

As you stroll through this sheltered place, artificial and natural elements intertwine, blurring the boundaries between them. The matrix of steel structures is a result of human rational control. The trees present on the site disrupt the orderly grid of human intervention. All of these transform the initially rigid building into something organic and live. 

We have reason to believe that the Coffee Shed of Lu Xun Park offers an opportunity to deepen the relationship between human and nature. Just as Mies van der Rohe said, “We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity”.

Credits
Architecture Firm:  SHISUO Design Office

Lead Architects: Sanif, Chang Shan

Design Team: Zhang Han, Li Tong

Structure Consultant：iStructure- Yang Xiaotian、Wu Kunying

Lighting Consultant：ADA lighting consultants- Hung Shenglin、Liu Jingyi

Contractor: Shanghai Hongfang (Group) Co., Ltd

Photography: Zhu Runzi, Sanif, Chang Shan,DONG image