Traditional Chinese pastries are typically made by pouring batter into a decorative mould. Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu had this metaphor in mind when they converted an old textile warehouse into a head office, café and retail store for Lao Ding Feng, a century-old Beijing confectionery. In their Recast scheme, the original red-brick building represents the mould; the new cast-concrete structures inserted within this shell — structures that occasionally seep out the sides — represent the batter. The result: a building that honours both its industrial history and its newfound purpose.
Team: Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu with Zhao Lei, Ivy Feng, Tian Hua, Wenbo Da, Joy Han, Mingxuan Wei, Nicolas Fardet, July Huang and Lyuqitiao Wang
Neri&Hu converted an old textile warehouse into an office office, café and retail store for a Beijing confectionery.