Hasta La Ideas

Coffee obsession reaches new heights in this small Hong Kong café

Given Hong Kong’s tradition of amalgamating cultures and cuisines, it’s no surprise that it’s embracing the craft coffee movement. In the quirky residential neighborhood of Sheung Wan in the Central district, I happily stumbled upon one of the city’s newest coffee shops, Knockbox Coffee Company—a three stool cafe with an intensely serious passion for java.

The space is tiny, and shared with gown designer Cerise Yip, with odds and ends for sale ranging from Delta Blues Audio’s Tuba iPod tube amp to books and sunglasses. Occasionally hosting the work of local artists, Knockbox acts as an ambassador for Hong Kong’s hip.

Owners Patrick Tam and Frances Lam are young entrepreneurs dedicated to making the perfect cup. Our passionate barista Jonathan walked us through the coffees available that week—a global who’s who including La Ilusión Bourbon from Has Bean in Stafford, England; an Indonesian Blue Batak from Taiwan’s Caffé Artigiano (not to be confused with the Vancouver-based purveyor with the same name) that I ordered; an organic Bolivian Anjilanaka from Chicago’s Intelligentsia; and Panama’s Carmen Estate. The staff knows many of the roasters personally, and are extremely knowledgeable about the coffees they serve without being pretentious.

Coffee selected, Jonathan asked which brewing method I preferred—in addition to espresso they offer a range of manual brewing methods, including AeroPress, a Hario Halogen Beam Heater syphon, and Hario pour over drip cones. The entire process—from beans to brewing—is taken very seriously at Knockbox. Water is heated and its temperature taken, beans appropriately ground, and once brewed tested by a refractometer to ensure its optimal preparation—and enjoyment. After you enjoy your cup you can head out to explore the neighborhood’s developing indy retail shops and restaurants.

Knockbox Coffee Company

Shop B, 14 Tai Ping Shan Street

Central District, Hong Kong

This Hong Kong boutique has an undulating ceiling of woven cables and a checkout inside the changing rooms.

Architects LEAD and Nelson Chow designed the store for retailer Shine, who stock clothing collections from various fashion brands.

Over 900 overlapping white cables create the suspended ceiling, which contrasts with the black structure behind.

A mirror across the back wall creates the illusion that the ceiling is twice as long.

Garments hang from leather-covered rails, where mounted plaques state the designer of each collection.

Other projects on Dezeen with undulating ceilings include a cave-like cafe and a timber-lined hotel room.

Photography is by Dennis Lo.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Shine is one of Hong Kong’s most renowned high-end multi-brand fashion stores, known for bringing pioneering foreign brands to Hong Kong clientele. The Shine Flagship Fashion Store in Causeway Bay, designed by NC Design & Architecture Ltd. (NCDA) and the Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd. (LEAD), showcases how an architectural reinterpretation of contemporary textile patterns & accessories can be seamlessly integrated into fashion retail, creating a fascinating yet highly functional contemporary store.

Located in the Fashion Walk, the Shine Corner Store optimises its relation to the street through an open façade, visually doubling the space through a fully mirrored back wall. In the main room, pieces from various designers are presented against a monochromatic background into a flexible open shelving system. The shelves’ design is based on a folding luggage rack and its leather surface with integrated lighting has leather belts strapped around it to reveal the names of the designer brands below. The cashier area in the back of the store conceals the fitting rooms and storage entrance behind a continuously folded black steel wall that resembles long folded dressing partitions and forms the most intimate and private area within the overall shop.

The most distinct feature of the store is its ceiling. Over 900 shimmering white cords are woven into undulating overlapping planes that create Moiré patterns against the dark ceiling backdrop. The design questions and explores the dematerialisation of surfaces through the weaving of thread – an element commonly found in contemporary textile patterns and fabrics – and alludes to principles of Op Art by directly referring to graphical experimentation in the grisaille paintings of artists like Victor Vasarely and others. The ceiling plays on the shopper’s perception as walking underneath it suggest the illusion of movement as hidden images appear to be flashing and vibrating in the ceiling and swelling, warping patterns emerge.

The Shine Fashion Store shows how unique large-scale effects that emerge from the creative use of material and detailing can effectively be combined with programmatic functionality and spatial efficiency.

Project Title: Shine Fashion Store
Location: Shop B, G/F 5-7 Cleveland Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Design:
Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd. (LEAD)
NC Design & Architecture Ltd. (NCDA)

Design Team:
Nelson Chow (NCDA)
Kristof Crolla (LEAD)

Client: Shine Trading (HK) Ltd.

See also:

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Zuo Corp by Super Super and Inside/Outside	Alter Store by 3Gatti Architecture Studio	Orlebar Brown by Post-Office

This clothing store in Tel Aviv by Z-A Studio of New York features items displayed on a pegboard that runs to the ceiling of the double-height space.

Called Delicatessen 2, the interior of the shop features furniture that appears to be emerging from the walls, with the spaces beneath them painted yellow.

Clothes are displayed on the pegs along one wall, with handbags mounted at the back of the space.

Photographs are by Assaf Pinchuk.

The following information is from the architects:

Delicatessen Clothing Store

By mounting the pegboard on the entire 5m tall space, and lighting it from behind, this rough hardware store material  turned into an ephemeral, lace-like dress that wraps around the space.

In addition to the vertical pegboard display, horizontal display fixtures, made of found and recycled furniture pieces were cut out of the pegboard dress and “pulled” out of the wall revealing the yellow undergarment.

The pegboard material was selected because it is the most bass flexible display infrastructure, which allows the constant change, growth and mutation of the space.

Spatial transformation can follow a change in display needs, evolution of the brand or simply the change of fashion seasons.

The recurring customer who is used to the change of goods can now encounter an immersive transformation and the spatial design can become a commodity consumed on a regular basis.

See also:

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Lik+Neon by Gitta Gschwendtner	Stella K Showroom by Pascal Grasso Architectures	More interiors on Dezeen

Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld won the Shopping category at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona last week for this store for flip flop brand Havaianas in São Paulo. (more…)

Japanese design studio Nendo have designed a concept shop for fashion brand Issey Miyake.

Called 24 Issey Miyake, the design will be used for four shops, due to open in department stores across Tokyo this month.

More information to follow.

More Dezeen stories about Nendo:
Music Cage
ASOBIO shop
Collar and Hexagon
Blown Fabric
Camper display
Ghost Stories
Elastic Diamond
Chocolate Pencils
Kazodokei
Diamond Chair
Meguro office space
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