A thought-provoking new café design in Shanghai’s mixed-use Columbia Circle complex from Neri&Hu for the Blue Bottle Coffee chain has caught our eye after being completed earlier this year. 

Executed at just 1,680 square feet within the leftover footprint evacuated by a former residential building, the new 'The Imprint' café provides customers a respite from the blistering pace of city life with a welcoming sense of 'home' in line with the client's brand identity and community values.

“Even if the building is no longer visible in the physical world, the traces it leaves in our individual or collective memories serve as a source of nostalgia and remembering,” the firm states in their project description.

Within its white suspended massing, the impression of a corrugated roof's mold is used to manifest a sentimental attachment to the space in dialogue with the remaining composition of recycled clay bricks and plaster. 

"Despite the physical absence of the house," the architects say, "people may still feel the spatial experience of being shielded by the roof when they are under the negative shape of the eaves."

The coffee bar and multi-functional platform are placed in the center of the plan. Customers can also pursue the small books and merchandise section that's included while they wait for orders. The position of the platform results in a circular flow of movement, with tables and chairs distributed evenly along the perimeter. 

This distribution of open space and individual seating finally invites customers to "delight in new potential encounters and gatherings," as is the hallmark of any great public café space. 

The project joins a previous effort completed for Blue Bottle in December 2022 and another 'Anchor' café at the city's Pudong Airport.

Neri&Hu was just named a winner in the Architecture, Adaptive Re-Use: Incision category of the 2024 AZ Awards, in addition to being selected as a Highly Commended + 'Office' Winner as part of the AR Future Projects Awards in March.