Linehouse Limited 聯圖建築設計

Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store

Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud

BLACK STAR PASTRY SHANGHAI FLAGSHIP STORE

Linehouse

ARCHITECTS
Linehouse

ARTWORK
UAP

LIGHTING DESIGN
Studio Illumine

MANUFACTURERS
佰丽石, 千纳装饰材料有限公司, 博威特, 四国化成, 大烨照明, 本土, 格度, 界意, 艾梦迪

DESIGN TEAM
Alex Mok, Cherngyu Chen, Yeling Guo, Rongli Chen, Mia Zhou, Leah Lin

COMMISSIONED ARTISTS
Olivia Steele, Naoko Ito, Rowan Corkill, Debbie Lawson

LEVITATING CAKE DISPLAY
March Studio

CLIENT
Black Star Pastry

BRANDING DESIGN
Studio Ongarato / Noritake

CREATIVE DIRECTION AND ART CURATION
Louis Li

AREA
380 m²

YEAR
2021

LOCATION
Shanghai, China

CATEGORY
Coffee Shop Interiors

Text description provided by architect.

Linehouse worked in collaboration with Louis Li, principal and creative director of Black Star Pastry, to convert a red-brick old villa on Yuyuan Road, Shanghai into Black Star Pastry’s first flagship store in China.

Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud

Conceived as two venues over two floors, the ground floor operates as Black Star Pastry’s cake and coffee retail space, while the second floor reveals a new dining space for the brand - Black Star Gallery.

The combination of the two spaces creates a futuristic retail complex that encompasses dining, design, art, and lifestyle.

Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud

Black Star Pastry was founded in Sydney in 2008 and is the creator of the Strawberry Watermelon Cake. According to New York Times, it is the world’s most Instagrammed cake.

– The ground floor pastry store is themed around the narrative Interstellar Travel, the iconic maglev display at the center features nine revolving and levitating space capsules, displaying 9 cakes exclusively launched in Shanghai.

Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud

It is an exploration of gravity vs weightlessness. Stainless-steel shelves holding thousands of meteorites, ascend, bend and turn towards the ceiling creating the illusion of rocks transfixed in space.

The phrase ‘we are all just stardust’ can be found lining the edges of the communal tables - each letter seemingly dripping off the edge of the table following gravity, marking the transition from the concrete to the abstract. Elsewhere, retail areas are spread throughout the ground floor, stocked with coffee beans and apparel.

The first flagship store outside of Australia, it features Black Star Pastry’s new branding, with illustrations by one of the world’s most popular illustrator, Noritake. Accompanied by black stars, the boy and hedgehog characters are connected to the Black Star name and narrative.

Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud

The ground floor stirs up the incredible sensation of being aboard a spaceship, transporting you to a parallel universe upstairs. A new staircase clad in roughcast concrete terrazzo transports guests to the Black Star Gallery; an exhibition-style dining space-themed meta habitat – featuring artworks by four emerging international artists.

Rowan Corkill, Olivia Steele, Debbie Lawson, and Naoko Ito created four site-specific works. The collection of artworks together creates a fabled habitat. A root word with Greek origins, ‘Meta’ means “after” or “beyond”.

Here, ordinary and familiar objects related to human civilization are transformed by the distortion of time and space into metamorphic states. The art collection depicts roaming deer, trapped tree branches, glowing water streams, and bodies covered in withered leaves.

Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud

Together it creates a fabled habitat that is sinister yet fantastical - a rich and pure landscape where the unusual and the unexpected are commonplace.

The gallery is a tearoom in the afternoon and a cocktail lounge by night. The ceiling is lined in a metal grid. The floor is a rough concrete cast terrazzo tile, giving the space a hint of wildness and creating a museum-like mood for the art.

A private room named There There, featuring an intimate bar wrapped in acid-etched blue metal, is enclosed with a deep blue velvet curtain.

Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud

A black timber floor folds up onto the walls sits in contrast against the exposed concrete of the existing site. A stainless-steel curved backdrop holds the wines on display.


Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store


Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
1F Plan
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store
2F Plan

Linehouse Limited 聯圖建築設計
Linehouse Limited 聯圖建築設計
22A Gee Chang Hong Centre, 65 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong 香港黃竹坑道65號志昌行中心22A