人工の岩が支える洞窟のようなカフェ空間

藤井洋子と青山周平が北京に設立したB.L.U.E. Architecture Studioが、洞窟のようなカフェ空間〈ゾライズムカフェ アランヤ〉を北京で設計しました。

（以下、B.L.U.E. Architecture Studioから提供されたプレスキットのテキストの抄訳）

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

〈ゾライズムカフェ アランヤ〉はデザートブランド「ゾライズム（Zolaism）」が、北京中心部から車で3〜4時間の距離にある海辺のリゾート地、アランヤ（Aranya / 阿那亜）にて展開した新店舗プロジェクトです。

映画館の北側に増築しており、大通りに面していることから視界が開けているのが特徴です。ブランドコンセプトである「山や海の自然美」を継承しながら、地域の人情味あふれる雰囲気や自然からインスピレーションを得て設計されています。

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

自然と情緒のデザイン

高度な工業化、情報化により都市に住む私たちが使う空間や製品は、そのほとんどが合理的なものです。このような状況では、モノや空間との情緒的なつながりを築くことができず、本当の意味でのリラックスや自由を感じることはできません。空間は特定の機能のための容器であるだけでなく、非合理的である必要があるのではないでしょうか。

また、自然の持つ静けさと広大さは、都市生活のリズムから逃れ、人間が本来の姿に戻ることを助けてくれます。都市の喧騒から解放され、この建築が人びとの心の拠り所となることを願っています。

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

岩が支えるカフェ空間

〈ゾライズムカフェ アランヤ〉は、自然な形状の岩とそれに支えられた大きな庇、3面のガラスカーテンウォールによる内外の一体感が特徴の空間です。

有機的な形状の岩は、鉄骨を隠す構造であり、空間を柔らかく分割し、個室を形成し、座席としての機能も兼ねています。ランダムな形状と配置により岩の間に自由なスペースが広がり、空間に流動性と開放感を与え、歩くごとに常に変化する空間を体験できます。

岩はGRCの打ち放しにより粗く重い質感を表現し、フレームの無いカーテンウォールの軽さ、透明感との強いコントラストを形成し、造形の力強さを強調しています。

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

手仕事による直感的な造形

〈ゾライズムカフェ アランヤ〉の設計は1：100スケールの発泡スチロール模型から始まり、設計の深度とともに模型のスケールは大きくなり、最終的には1：30の模型で空間の形態や構成を確定し、工場でのモックアップが開始しました。

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

工場では1：10の粘土モデルにより空間の美しさを直感的に理解し、調整を重ねながらスケールを大きくし、1：1のモックアップが完成しました。この制作にあたり3Dモデリングや施工図はいっさい作成せず、設計者と施工者の手仕事により造形しています。工場で作成した個々のモジュールを現場にて組み立て、建築が完成しました。
こういった設計施工プロセスであったため、形態をコントロールするのではなく、実際に手を動かし考え、経験則や直感的な判断により設計を進めました。これにより〈ゾライズムカフェ アランヤ〉は複製や代替が不可であり、情緒的な強さを持った空間となりました。

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

都会の喧騒から離れたアランヤのようなリゾート地では、人びとは身体と精神を休める場所を欲しています。
私たちが直感でつくり上げた空間は、自然に近い環境を提供するだけでなく、自然に帰るという心境を呼び起こします。都市生活の重荷から解放され、リラクゼーションと心のゆとりを手に入れることができます。

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

これから空間デザインの価値

モダニズム建築の本質は機能至上主義であり、合理的な判断と論理的な思考がモダニズムデザインの核心です。
現在、空間のバーチャル化の過程で機能主義が徐々に失われ、ビッグデータと人工知能の発達は、デザイナーの合理的思考の価値を徐々に弱めています。

これからの空間デザインの価値は知覚、経験、理想にあり、ある程度の偶発性を包含するべきだと考えています。
〈ゾライズムカフェ アランヤ〉のデザインは、人間と自然の相対性と統合性の両方を明らかにし、空間は精神的な居場所となりました。この実験的な試みは、新しい時代の自然と人工的な環境との関係を探る新たな出発点として位置づけています。

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Photographs: Eiichi Kano

Plan

Elevation

Section

Production Process

Hand modeling 1/100 scale

Hand modeling 1/10 scale

Hand modeling 1/1 scale

Zolaism Café, Aranya / 1:1 scale hand modeling 1

以下、B.L.U.E. Architecture Studioのリリース（英文）です。

Design Description \ Zolaism Café, Aranya  

1/ project overview 

The project is the new store of the new-Chinese-style dessert brand “Zolaism” in Aranya, Qinhuangdao, one of the most popular seaside resort communities sitting 3-4 hours drive from the central city of Beijing. Located in the plaza of the community, the site is an addition attached to the north side of the original building of cinema, facing the main road and featuring a wide field of view. The philosophy of the brand derives from the natural beauty of mountains and seas. Because of the brand concept and the humanistic atmosphere of the community by the sea, we drew inspirations from nature while respecting the spirit of the site and continuing the brand spirit. 

2/ design concept

The design starts from nature. In the vast world, humans are small and lonely entity. The tranquility and vastness of nature help people to escape from the rhythm of urban life and to return to their true nature. Here, we hope the architecture can be a spiritual place for people to settle down.  

The design also starts from emotion. Living in highly-industrialized and information-based modern cities, the spaces and the products we use are mostly the results of data analysis and rational judgement. Under the condition, people can hardly build emotional connection with objects and spaces; they can hardly feel truly relaxed and free. We contend that today’s architecture needs more irrational characteristics in order to highlight the value of emotions. Space is not only a container for specific functions, but more importantly, also a carrier of emotions and memories. Thus, the sense of experience and spirituality of architecture have become the core of our design. 

3/ architectural form 

In the open small plaza, several rocks with natural form are scattered in between, supporting a large eave. With its back against the north facade of the original cinema building, the architecture of Zolaism is featured with three sides of glass curtain wall enclosures, forming a whole space that integrates the interior and the exterior. The organic form of the stones, on one hand, seems random and improvisational; on the other hand, the stones with different sizes play the role of hidden steel column structure, and also help divide functional areas. Inside the two largest rocks are private resting rooms, and the shapes have combined the function of fixed seating at the bottom. The scattered seatings spread freely throughout the spaces between the mountain rocks. The plan gives the whole space a sense of fluidity and openness, providing guests a constantly changing spatial experience while walking. The stone shapes were created by GRC pouring: the natural texture of concrete has revealed coarse and heavy texture of the rocks, while forming a strong visual contrast with the lightness and transparency of the surrounding ultra-clear glass in order to emphasize a sense of power of the form. The frameless full-height glass curtain walls introduce plenty of sunlight into the indoor space, and the dynamic play of light and shadows changes over time, providing guests a feeling of resting in nature. 

4/ construction process 

Compared to conventional architectural projects, the design and construction process of Zolaism has made some breakthroughs. From the beginning of the design process, we explored the spatial form through handmade models. We started from physical foam models with a scale of 1:100, and made sets of different models to study the composition of architectural space. During our exploration, the foam corroded by glue presented natural and uneven texture, and the vivid form occasionally helped our design process. With the deepening of the design project, we gradually enlarged the scale of models, and eventually finalized the spatial form and organization with a 1:30 model, and then the production of model making was started at a professional factory. At first, a 1:10 handmade clay model was created. Clay, as natural material, provides us a more intuitive understanding and grasp of the form and aesthetics of the space. Subsequently, the scale of the model continued to be enlarged during constant adjustments until the 1:1 clay sculpture model was finalized. The entire production process relied on neither the help of computer 3D modeling nor construction documents. Instead, it was all done by hand of the designers and the contractor. Then after the turnover formwork and GRC module pouring process, the finished and individual modules were transported to the site for assembly. Finally, the architecture was successfully completed. 

The whole construction process is full of unknown and uncertainty. To a certain extent, we gave up the overall control of architectural form. Instead, we let our hands to think and allow the design to grow with the flow. With the guidance of perceptual experience and adhoc judgement, we gradually refined the design to a more mature scheme. The architecture with such design and construction process cannot be replicated or replaced, which endows the space with unique values of emotions and strength. In a seaside resort community like Aranya away from the noise of the cities, people need places to rest their bodies and spirits. The sensual and perceptual space we’ve created with our intuition not just provides an environment close to nature, but also inspires a state of mind of returning to nature. It encourages people to put away the burden of urban life to get relaxation and freedom of minds. 

5/ look forward

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the essence of modernism architecture is the supremacy of functionalism. Rational judgement and logical thinking are the core of modernism design. Nowadays, the process of space virtualization is constantly undermining functionalism. Meanwhile, the development of big data and artificial intelligence has gradually weakened the values of designers’ rational thinking. We believe that in the future, the value of spatial design is more about perception, experience and ideal, and it should embrace a certain amount of contingency. The design for Zolaism reveals both the relativity and integration of human and nature. The architectural space has become a spiritual habitat. As a new beginning, this experimental attempt stands as our exploration of the relationship between nature and artificial environment in the new era.

「Zolaism Café, Aranya」B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio公式サイト

https://www.b-l-u-e.net/index.php/index/project/index/cid/1/id/70.html?lang=en