Rejuvenated Old WarehouseQinhuangdao Moutreen Cafe

The design requirement of Nanzhanfang is to build a cafe in the south. This is an important space for communication. The important point is not simply to create a resting space, but to achieve citizen participation through the symbiosis practice between the preserved historical building and the implanted modern space. This is a dialogue between the industrial history memory of Nanzhanfang and the new urban culture.
Every building tells its own story. The design of Nanzhanfang Moutreen Cafe focuses on creating narrative of contemporary life from the foundation of history. Nanzhanfang serves as a historical memory, and the facade of the building completely retains this historical trace. The dark red iron gate declares the past of the industrial relics, and the unremarkable facade image has gradually become irreplaceably “dignified” after years of tempering. The design of the interior space and the protection of the architectural historical features need to show a large tolerance in order to carry people's rich emotions.
The new indoor functional space of Moutreen Cafe is in dialogue with the industrial civilization built upon the wooden beam truss structure in Nanzhanfang. New functions intervene in historical memory in the form of spatial modules, and their respective narratives constitute a unique field spatial experience. Different functional areas, such as coffee, theater, book bar, and learning corner, communicate with each other in a way of spatial montage editing, and at the same time coexist with the historical space of Nanzhanfang. From the past to the present, it is the embodied experience that Moutreen Cafe hopes to bring to every customer.
Moutreen Cafe has become the center of the entire Nanzhanfang, reconstructing the field attributes of it. It changes from a dull passive visit to a stage for public participation. The internet extends the influence of Nanzhanfang Moutreen Cafe to the urban area and has become the most popular cafe check-in place in Qinhuangdao.
The design team of Shanfangzhu employed philosophical and sociological methods, and applied field theory in practice to help the reconstruction and re-centralization of the port area by transforming a small local space.
As a customer wrote in the blog of his visit to Moutreen Cafe: A cafe creates a memory, connects the history and the present of the city, and quietly composes the narrative of each visitor's life.