Atelier Tao+c has Converted an Old Warehouse into a Showroom for ZIIN

An old textile warehouse built in the 1960s in Beijing's Langyuan Station area was renovated into a showroom for furniture products made by ZIIN. The 186-square-meter project retains the original brick walls, construction, and sloping roof. Atelier Tao+c designed the ZIIN showroom by bringing together the existing site with the function of a new building intended as an exhibition venue and sales space.

Façade of ZIIN showroom in Beijing, China

Although the façade of the old building was retained, the interior design of the showroom was redesigned by Atelier Tao+c by placing two intersecting square frames, which were rotated 45 degrees to detach from the original four walls. Layouts with shapes like this will give a sense of dynamism to circulation in the space, visually and experientially. In addition, each side of the room can be used to show off different furniture sets depending on their type and function.

Layout of ZIIN showroom in Beijing, China

Upon entering the showroom, visitors are greeted by two interlaced skeletons treated differently in transparent and solid, forming a crystal-like structure. While corrugated polycarbonate panels separate between areas in the showroom and provide a slightly transparent effect for natural light to keep entering. Sunlight can also enter optimally through windows with wooden frames from the front area. In the middle of the lower floor, with an open ceiling with a semicircular shape, visitors can see a little construction and the upper floor. The curiosity that arises will encourage visitors to climb to the top through wooden stairs.

Design of the showroom on the ground floor

The semicircular open ceiling reveals the construction and upper floors

The wood material is used in almost all project elements, such as bulkhead walls, stairs, and others. The interior design structure is also carefully crafted to create homogeneous group rooms continuously, where one room leads to another. With this circulation, visitors will pass unexpected routes with various possibilities due to the dynamic and flexible circulation flow.

Wood materials are applied to almost all elements of the upstairs showroom

Every steel structure, wooden frame, and wall substructure to the final assembly panel can be seen in detail in the building. Then every piping and ceiling is also left exposed to inform visitors of the design process carried out by Atelier Tao+c from the beginning of construction to become a showroom. The transparency of materials and processes will produce maximum design and can be appreciated by every visitor who sees the products on display and the building itself.

Atelier Tao+C design results with transparency of materials and design processes

Material and construction details in the showroom

"General industrial materials, particularly standard steel beams, profiles, wood, and bricks, complement the project's structure regardless of cost, gradation, roughness, or fineness. By adopting this selection of materials, we aspire to eliminate hierarchy while not making a difference at Ziin Store. It is a cost-effective control project that uses basic formal logic, ordinary materials, and construction techniques to provide in-depth expression of space and adaptive reuse details," says Atelier Tao+c.