Grid Coffee, Sanyuanli Food Market Store

Coffee at the Market Threshold

At the northern entrance to Beijing’s Sanyuanli Food Market, Grid Coffee occupies only 25 square metres yet holds two public faces. One addresses the street through a deep concrete portal; the other opens directly into the market through a compact selling window. B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio treats both edges as active pieces of the neighbourhood.

The street entrance is framed in rough, ribbed concrete and closed with hand-assembled copper doors. Their warm, irregular surface catches the light against the weight of the mineral surround. Inside the market, a hammered copper shutter operates at the scale of a stall: open, it becomes a counter for exchange; closed, it reads as a quiet metal panel set within the textured wall.

A near-right-angled bar organises the narrow interior. Ordering, preparation and standing consumption follow its two arms, while recessed ledges give customers a place to pause without introducing conventional seating. The pale aggregate counter contains coffee beans from the brand’s own supply, turning the working surface into a material record of the product.

The palette is deliberately compact. Sand-faced cement and exposed aggregate establish a muted field; oxidised and hammered copper bring depth; elm and other woods soften the points touched by hand and body. Small timber signs identify coffee varieties in a manner borrowed from the market’s changeable price labels.

This is a coffee shop shaped by the tempo of buying, tasting and moving on. Its windows extend the transactional life of the neighbouring stalls, while its crafted surfaces provide a moment of concentration amid the market’s colour and noise. The project’s modest scale gives each junction unusual weight: door, shutter, bar, ledge and display all participate in the exchange between coffee culture and everyday commerce.

The project succeeds through its precise reading of threshold conditions. The two entrances serve different audiences without splitting the shop into separate identities. The sculptural bar controls the tight plan, and its corner distinguishes ordering from stand-and-sip use with minimal signage or furniture.

Material choices carry the architectural character. Rough concrete gives the tiny shop presence, copper provides a responsive moving surface, and timber concentrates warmth at contact points. The coffee-bean aggregate counter and suspended timber labels avoid literal market imagery while keeping product and place closely connected.

The photographs and drawings confirm the project’s double address. The street façade is marked by a concrete portal and copper doors; the market elevation contains an operable copper selling window. Plans show the angled bar dividing preparation, ordering, display and standing areas within the 25-square-metre footprint. Close photographs also document beans embedded in the counter and timber labels above the display. These visible elements support the submission’s account of a shop integrated with market routines.

Image 01 — Twilight establishes the coffee shop as an illuminated concrete portal beside the brighter market entrance. Image 02 — The street façade shows the new opening aligned with the existing low market building. Image 03 — The concrete frame and copper doors give the compact frontage a distinct material presence. Image 04 — A close exterior view records the irregular ribbed concrete and warm oxidised copper. Image 05 — Movement at the market entrance shows the shop operating as part of an active pedestrian threshold. Image 06 — The market elevation appears calm when the copper selling window is closed. Image 07 — The shutter sits as a single crafted panel against the ribbed concrete wall. Image 08 — Half-open, the copper panel reveals a compact counter linking staff and market visitors. Image 09 — The fully open window frames the exchange with neighbouring produce stalls in view. Image 10 — The interior counter narrows circulation into a clear standing-and-ordering sequence. Image 11 — The long bar creates depth through the small plan and keeps service equipment concentrated. Image 12 — The view towards the entrance shows copper doors filtering the busy market edge. Image 13 — The preparation side of the bar combines machines, bean display and product information. Image 14 — The selling window turns the market itself into a framed view from inside the café. Image 15 — Timber coffee labels sit above recessed bean displays in the aggregate counter. Image 16 — A backlit copper panel and elm ledge create a compact leaning point. Image 17 — Coffee beans embedded in the pale aggregate make the product part of the tactile surface. Image 18 — The junction of concrete, copper tile and timber records the project’s restrained material vocabulary.

The plan is an irregular polygon positioned between the street and the market aisle. A bent central counter divides coffee preparation from public standing space. The street entrance sits at the narrow end; the market selling window opens along the long inner wall. Axonometric drawings show the concrete street portal and copper door as one intervention, with the ribbed market wall and operable shutter forming the second. The two openings create a short cross-connection through a highly compressed interior.

Project Name Grid Coffee, SanYuanLi Food Market Store Project Location SanYuanLi Food Market ,Beijing Project Type Coffee shop interior design Architectural Design Shuhei Aoyama、Yoko Fujii、Yichen Wang、Jingyuan Li、Jinglin Feng/ B.L.U.E. Architecture studio Lighting Design B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio Client Grid Coffee Size One Floor Site Area - Gross Area 25m2 Design Period 08.2023- 09.2023 Construction Period 09.2023 - 11.2023 Photography Credit Runzi Zhu Materials Cast-in-place exposed aggregate decorative concrete, Dagu cement+ custom coffee beam aggregate, sand-faced water cement, ribbed concrete, hammered copper sheet, oxidized copper, elm wood, walnut wood, cheery wood, sapele wood, oak wood, cork board

Structure Type - Design Overview 1.Context: This café is situated within the SanYuanLi Food Market in Beijing. Unlike traditional markets, the SanYuanLi Food Market serves the entire SanYuanLi community and, due to its proximity to the embassy district and its southern orientation towards the hotel-lined banks of the LiangMa River, it enjoys a unique geographical position, creating a distinctive atmosphere that set it apart from ordinary markets. Upon entering the SanYuanLi Food Market, visitors encounter a diverse array of stalls, an extensive range of ingredients, and a rich cultural atmosphere. Reflecting traditional living scenes in contemporary urban settings, it radiates a lively energy amidst the interplay of conflict and integration. Positioned at the northern entrance of the marketplace, one side of the café faces the street, while the other side serves as the initial retail focal point, capturing the attention of passerby. Despite its modest 25m2 footprint, the café undeniably commands a significant nodal space.

2.Design Concept: In his book ‘Collage City,’ American architectural theorist Colin Rowe introduced the concept of ‘contextualism,’ asserting that cities embody the accumulation of architecture from various historical stages. Despite serving as a medium for collective memories, cities have become increasingly unfamiliar and alien with the progression of urbanization. Incremental developments aimed at addressing longstanding issues within urban blocks have, however, led to the weakening of distinctive features such as folk street market culture. The lively scenes of daily life lose their vibrancy, supplanted by indifferent and impersonal spatial norms. With this design, our objective is to initiate a discourse on street, community revitalization, and urban connections, aiming to explore innovative approaches to communal public life. Leveraging the exceptional location and distinctive site constraints, this project employs a dual-track design approach. Our focus is on establishing both the ‘uniqueness’ and ‘everyday sensibility’ of the community space, seamlessly integrating the distinctive spatial ambiance into daily life. - ‘Uniqueness’: How to infuse new vitality into daily life scenes? Given the unique refinement and fashion sensibilities inherent in the SanYuanLi Market, coupled with the distinctive stand-and-sip and all-you-can-eat coffee experience offered by Grid Coffee, establishing a distinctive ambiance is crucial for this project. The entrance façade features what appears to be a random and fortuitous design, highlighting a naturalistic and artistic sensibility. The shape formed by the concrete resembles a framing element, capturing people in the market as they relax and enjoy coffee. The handcrafted copper door, in contrast with the rough and weighty concrete, creates a visually striking contrast, allowing it to stand out in the lively street scene without dominating the overall space. The coffee shop’s façade design within the market maintains consistent coherence. The selling window features a unique opening and closing mechanism, adding a distinctive and amusing touch to the selling process. When open, it not only showcases the interaction between selling and experience but also integrates emotional communication between urban life and community scenes. On the other hand, when closed, the exquisite hand-hammered copper plate forms a striking contrast with the bustling market, resembling a piece of art exhibited within the market. The interior design unfolds with a coherent narrative, emphasizing the ritualistic essence of stand-and-sip coffee engagement. The sculptural bar intricately divides the 25m2 space into two separate zones, seamlessly accommodating both experiential and retail functions. Its nearly right-angled corner effortlessly separates the ordering and standing-and-sip realms, establishing a cohesive and organized spatial configuration. On the customer experience side, recessed alcoves and leaning areas are designed to meet the specific requirements of order placement and internal standing-and-sip behavior separately.

-“Everyday Sensibility”: How to capture urban memories and extend the fabric of the neighborhood? In the vibrant SanYuanLi Market, where the essence of daily necessities intertwines with the aroma of cooking, the project draws inspiration from the distinctive characteristics of the site and it seamlessly extends the spatial sequences and behavioral patterns inherent in the market, emphasizing functional operations by integrating the display, storage, and sale of goods within limited stalls. Building upon this concept, the project introduces window-type retail spaces on the inner façade of the café within the market, fostering interaction among various stalls and blurring the boundaries between the café and the market. The limited stall spaces allow for a rich and accessible display of products. The open coffee bean showcase at the entrance bar and the market retail window respond to this feature, creating a sense of immediacy that naturally connects customers with the market experience. The daily ebb and flow of fresh ingredients within the market, guided by seasonal and market dynamics, is reflected in the suspended product signs. This functionality empowers vendors to swiftly update and adjust prices in response to changing offerings. This concept gave rise to ‘price tags’ for coffee beans, emphasizing their temporary nature through a hanging presentation. Different varieties of coffee beans are represented using solid wood boards with distinct colors and textures, and these signs can be easily adjusted to complement various scenes and seasons. Despite differences is form, material, or technique, the essence of the market is abstractly and subtly translated into the new space, resonating with the vibrant daily life atmosphere of the market. Our design aim to harmonize tradition, creating a space where people can connect with the lively rhythm of the market’s everyday life.

3.Material and Construction： Due to spatial constraints, this project prioritizes simplicity in material selection while seeking richness and vibrancy in detail expression. It showcases a sense of layers through the unique textures, glossiness, and color variations of each material. Simultaneously, we emphasize the handcrafted nature of the materials and the involvement in the construction process to present a more natural state that resonates with the ambiance bestowed by the site. Beginning with the entrance design, we have discarded rigid forms and, through the manual craftmanship of designers and construction artisans, created a crafted “primitive’ look. The sliding doors at the entrance feature 175 oxidized copper squares (single side) and cherry wood chips. Instead of using machine-cut grooves and direct assembly, we opted for the manual assembly of individual pieces. This approach resulted in a discontinuous and unique pattern. The indoor bar’s countertop serves as the most interactive surface for customers. Reflecting Grid Coffee’s commitment to single-origin coffee, we collected brand coffee beans. Through multiple prototyping iterations, we blended theses beans with aggregates to achieve a randomly scattered effect on the appearance. This addition introduces an element of fun to the coffee tasting experience. The hand-cast ribbed façade exposes aggregates, emphasizing edges and creating a distinctive texture. For the surfaces directly touched by customers, including storage tables and backrests, we chose elm wood. The traces of time on the wood impart an imperfectly pristine quality yet exuding a warm atmosphere. 4.Conclusion： Despite its modest scale, this space transformation project is dedicated to enhancing the vibrancy of urban neighborhoods and cultivating new relationships within communities. Memories woven into the fabric of streets and communities undergo revitalization and are expressed in innovative ways, igniting a profound affection among city residents and, by extension, for life itself.

EDITORIAL QUALITY CHECK Grammar and spelling: checked Editorial language: international English Designer’s original submission: preserved verbatim Evidence standard: image, drawing and submission-based observations only