2013 BOY Winner: Bakery/Café

Firm: Alan Chan Design Company
Project: Tea Tao 3
Location: Chengdu, China
Photography: Alvin Chan

Local customers, aspiring to an international standard of service and style, are a target audience for this tea salon. No less important, however, are the flocks of foreign tourists who come to stroll amid the meticulously renovated pagodas of the surrounding neighborhood.

Alan Chan based his concept for the 860-square-foot tea salon on the five Chinese cosmological elements: metal, wood, earth, water, and fire. That translated into cherry furniture, granite flooring, and a circular pond filled with carp. Full-height glass opens up the historic architecture and allows for visual connections between the three function zones.

The first zone, street-front, is a shop. Next comes a Japa nese touch, a Zen-style courtyard where visitors can stop and relax. Finally, they reach a place to sit and sip—a room with an oversize teak table lined with Hans Wegner chairs.

Project Team:
Wong Kin-Ho.