CHAGEE, Global Harbor, Shanghai – China

The Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the origin of tea trees, is also the birthplace of CHAGEE. With a vision to lead the revival of Chinese tea, CHAGEE reinterprets the essence of oriental tea culture and, in just six years, has achieved remarkable success with over 2,000 stores. From Kunming to overseas, it has emerged as a leading modern tea beverage brand.The Global Harbor is a prominent shopping mall in the Putuo District, exerting significant influence within the surrounding business district.The Global Harbor flagship store features a medium to large tea beverage space with a central island-style seating arrangement, divided into four main areas: premium tea-making, dine-in ordering, takeaway counter, and tea-tasting section.Additionally, the store have installed folding windows on one side, blurring the boundary between the interior and exterior, thus enhancing the sense of openness within the space.In considering the spatial color palette, the brand and design team drew initial inspiration from the elements of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, tracing their roots back to the millennium-old tea culture. Integrated the Silk Road and the ancient Tea Horse Road into the concept, all while being inspired by the movie “Dune” Ultimately, the design ideas converged around the primary tone of tea color. The fusion of light golden tea, pure white milk, and an desert ambiance create a unique brand tone and memorable experience.The color of white tea is applied to walls, ceilings, floor, the brewing counters, and seats in tandem with a delicate and soft matting texture. The custom-made devices at the bar counter combines the color of black tea with a unique appearance that gives off an enchanting sheen of metal. The combination of two materials creates a clean and unified visual language.The design concept of Tea Bar is rooted in the aesthetics of tea culture. As an extension of the brand logo “C”, one of the installations uses glazes that combine pottery and porcelain to highlight a sense of history and culture. The wall painting depicting the Silk Road symbolizes the interaction between the East and the West. A special technique is employed to mimic the effect of sand blowing in the wind, conveying an epic ambience.The interior design draws inspiration from the grottoes in Dunhuang. A unified color scheme is applied to the walls and the ceiling. Minimalist structures and unique forms are created, evoking a sense of compactness in a tunnel.Different seating options are provided to meet various needs, such as socializing and working. Wood, bamboo and rattan elements are combined with large areas of plants, conveying a relaxing and cozy ambience within the space. The bar seating behind the windows provides plugs to meet the needs of customers working in the store.The “Tea Bar” concept spaces are based on the prototype of a teamaking workshop. An 8-meter-long bar counter provides home to a set of custom-made devices. The circulation route of this area is designed to meet the needs for “ordering, brewing and pickup” to ensure the efficiency of the tea baristas and a smooth consumer experience.The design of the bar intentionally minimizes the visual distraction and makes the products and tea baristas the protagonist of the space. The bar counter becomes the stage of baristas, allowing customers to watch every procedure of tea beverage making, from grinding, extracting to pouring brewed tea, in an immersive way.The teamaking devices enable a simpler teamaking process than the traditional practice. The complicated procedures are reduced to the more efficient practice of extraction. The devices, including the grinder, the tea-and-coffee maker, the POS machine, and the receipt printer, are all finished with a bronze stainless-steel film, a Michelin-level detail that aims to present the sophistication of new-style tea drinks. A set of dark bronze tea pots are displayed on the wall behind the bar counter, while a long, thin strip of warm light connects the entire space and guides the sightlines of customers.