Fantasy Babble Factory

Fantasy Babble Factory
Soap from different era on display at Acacia island. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Interactive floor and reflections. Image © Zhi Xia

FANTASY BABBLE FACTORY

Supercloud Studio

INTERIOR DESIGNERS
Supercloud Studio

LEAD ARCHITECT
Xunjun Xu

PROJECT PLANNING
Xiaojuan Xi

DESIGN TEAM
Yuqing Yang, Xiaoyu Han, Qiangsong Cui, Lei Pang, Wenhao Sun, Xudong Zhang, Jie Ji, Shiyuan Qi, Hao Yu, Fei Qi

LANDSCAPE DESIGN
Atelier Z+, Nuo Keng Landscape Studio, Concom Studio

EXHIBITION DESIGN
Shanghai Modern International Exhibition Co.ltd.

CONSTRUCTION
Shanghai Weifang Constrution Co.ltd, Shanghai Hengying Construction Development Co. Ltd

LIGHTING DESIGN
Lei Pang

INSTALLATION
Lei Pang, Xunjun Xu

CLIENT
Shanghai Guhao Culture Development Co., Ltd

PHOTOGRAPHS
Zhi Xia, Fangfang Tian, Xunjun Xu, Virtual Shanghai

AREA
1450 m²

YEAR
2020

LOCATION
Shanghai, China

CATEGORY
Renovation

Shanghai Yangpu Riverside development stretches 5.5 kilometers long from Qinhuangdao Road to Liping Road at the west of Yangpu District. It is one of the largest and most well-preserved industrial heritage worldwide. Founded in 1923, Shanghai Soap Factory is located on Yangshupu Road near the Huangpu River.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Above the wooden structure at the top is the ETFE membrane structure, and the Gleditsia island is shrouded in sufficient natural light. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Looking through the tube, from Baiqi café to Acacia island. Image © Zhi Xia

This renovation project is set on the production auxiliary area of the former Soap Factory, south-facing to the Huangpu River, with an adjacent landscape and water wharf. The west side of the project site was originally the production area and the auxiliary area.

The design takes the original wall foundation as a clue and builds a low red brick wall to restore the historical space pattern and form a semi-open courtyard. At the same time, it is connected by a floating steel plank road to achieving the changing sceneries while you walk in the project site. The last part consists of the hydrolysis building and the sewage purification pool.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Looking through the tube, from Baiqi café to Acacia island. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Hidden entry of BaiQi Cafe. Image © Zhi Xia

According to previous urban planning, the original pools of the Shanghai Soap Factory were classified to be demolished, thanks to # Atelier Z+ #, the architect in charge tried their best to preserve the original structures and installed a newly landscaped roof that redefines the way how these pools are being reused.

After the renovation, the original industrial relics were given a new look that combines retro and sci-fi that is unique and recognizable.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Hidden entry of BaiQi Cafe. Interactive floor installation. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Intersection of hidden entry and the outside world. Image © Fangfang Tian

The interior design team #Supercloud Studio# focused on ‘Soap’ as the main theme of the design, introduced a narrative of soap making as the journey that visitors are going to experience, and combined new media forms to the interior space to present a chanting theme of soap making, traversing the history and the present of the soap factory and made this project a popular public space along the Yangpu Riverside.

The renovated interior space is named " Soap. Dream. Space", a collaborative work that results from planning, architecture, landscape, interior, lighting, and exhibition design.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Intersection of hidden entry and the outside world. Image © Fangfang Tian
Fantasy Babble Factory
Hidden entry of BaiQi Cafe. Interactive floor installation. Image © Zhi Xia

The soap-making process is transformed into physical spaces with public arts, displays, as well as coffee, dining in the once soap-making production space, and even taking part in the production in a laboratory.

Turn the soap-making process into a spatial experience. The raw materials were collected from nature, after going through a series of procedures, become a bar of soap, and returned to nature after use.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Looking back to the entrance. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Interactive floor and scenes of different moods. Image © Zhi Xia

We try to express this flow in a spatial form. We chose the significant procedures from the soap-making process, and named the interior spaces after them: injecting – mixing – extracting – presenting – returning – foaming.

It stimulates the curiosity of the visitors who walk through the interior spaces which are connected by five steel pipes with diameters of 2.4 meters and a variety of lengths, and each space has its own distinct theme.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Tube connecting display space (Mixing) and Café (Extracting). Image © Fangfang Tian
Fantasy Babble Factory
Orange staircase. Image © Zhi Xia

Additionally, the circular tubes are also key visual elements, with some of them embedded with interactive lighting devices that turn them into key transitioning spaces between the scenes.

ACT 1: AWAKENING AND INFUSION

Sprawling vegetation washed into an unknown space through a hidden entry. The Chinese character ‘Zao’ as soap disassembled, makes "Bai" and "Qi".

Fantasy Babble Factory
Transparent acrylic coffee cassette. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Curved walls. Image © Fangfang Tian

Baiqi Café begins from the semi-outdoor sunken space by the river, which is also the starting point of "Soap Dream Space". A natural environment with overgrown vegetation.

Raw materials are sent into the pipeline for production, this marks the beginning of our journey - the Injection.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Floor embedded marble patterns. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Abstract flower petals. Image © Fangfang Tian

ACT 2: MIXING AND EXTRACTING - A PROCESS OF PURIFICATION.

The process of soap making is full of surprises - clear oil is slowly mixed with chemicals and became viscous, its color changed with different ingredients, then put into the mold, solidifies, turns into a beautiful bar of soap.

The spatial formula of Baiqi Coffee attempts to restore this purification process with a somewhat magical experience.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Abstract flower petals. Image © Fangfang Tian
Fantasy Babble Factory
Floor embedded marble patterns. Image © Zhi Xia

ACT 3: ACACIA ISLAND - ISLAND OF ACACIA TREES, A SLICE OF NATURE

The other side Baiqi Cafe is the Acacia Island exhibition area.

Soaps produced in different eras are placed in translucent soap bubble-shaped display shelves "grown" among the green plants.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Acacia Island Interior Rendering. Below the floor is the original 1.5 meter deep purifying pool, now covered with translucent glass floor
Fantasy Babble Factory
Baiqi café (Extraction) interior. Image © Fangfang Tian

ACT 4: DINE IN THE FLOWERS - DINE WITH THE LIGHT AND SHADOW OF PETALS

The beauty of flowers is transient. It blooms, scatters, and disappears. Flowers are also used as raw materials in soaps.

The fleeting flowering period and aroma are preserved in the form of soap, conveying the transient beauty into something we can hold on to.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Making soap in the empty swimming pool. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Making soap in the empty swimming pool. Image © Zhi Xia

Bee Flower sandalwood scented soap is one of the most popular classics by the Shanghai Soap Factory. It was first created in 1928, based on natural sandalwood, with a touch of jasmine and citrus notes.

The concept of the dine-in flower restaurant comes from the blooming petals. Enlarged abstract petals wrap and overlapping in the double-height space, creating unique light, shadow, and atmosphere.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Making soap in the empty swimming pool. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Sunken space of BaiQi Cafe. Image © Zhi Xia

ACT 5: SOAP LAB - HANDMADE SOAP IN AN EMPTY SWIMMING POOL

The process of making soap is a process of refining and refining, delicate, trivial, and requires a lot of focus.

Circling up from the orange steel ladder, the roof space of Soap Dream Space, a laboratory for a hands-on experience of soap making, is a light green empty swimming pool.

Fantasy Babble Factory
Sunken space of BaiQi Cafe. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Sculpture of a little girl with soap bubbles. Image © Zhi Xia

The beauty of flowers is transient.In this project one travels through the tunnels of time and spaces, spaces of Yangpu's industrial past, linked to the present, witnessing a story of industrialization.


Fantasy Babble Factory
Double height entrance space. Image © Fangfang Tian
Fantasy Babble Factory
Intersecting petals. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Bar shelf at Baiqi café (Extraction) with color lighting. Image © Fangfang Tian
Fantasy Babble Factory
Intersecting petals. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Zhi XiaIntersecting petals. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Intersecting petals. Image © Zhi Xia


Fantasy Babble Factory
Interactive floor and scenes of different moods. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Industrial elements in the space. Image © Xunjun Xu
Fantasy Babble Factory
Looking through the pipe from the exhibition hall to acacia island, the lighting installation - designed by Lumia Lab - "return" , with spiral lighting twirls to one direction and beam shaped light points to another, creating an illusion of moving space and time. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Looking through the pipe from the exhibition hall to acacia island, the lighting installation - designed by Lumia Lab - "return" , with spiral lighting twirls to one direction and beam shaped light points to another, creating an illusion of moving space and time. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Orange staircase. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Orange staircase. Image © Zhi Xia



Fantasy Babble Factory
Acacia Island Interior Rendering. Below the floor is the original 1.5 meter deep purifying pool, now covered with translucent glass floor
Fantasy Babble Factory
Acacia Island Interior Rendering. Below the floor is the original 1.5 meter deep purifying pool, now covered with translucent glass floor
Fantasy Babble Factory
"Mixing" is where the original stirring pool was, and now turned into a tranquil display room. The large-scale artwork "One Year/ Ten Thousand Years" designed by the famous Japanese artist Yoshiyuki Kawazoe is displayed here. The artwork with foam elements, shaped like stalactites, is one of the permanent exhibits in the 2019 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season. Image © Zhi Xia
Fantasy Babble Factory
Design concept of Baiqi Coffee (extraction). The colors inspired by translucent soap bars. Achieved with glass bricks and color lighting


Fantasy Babble Factory
Exploded diagram with the space narratives
Fantasy Babble Factory
1F plan
Fantasy Babble Factory
2F plan


Fantasy Babble Factory
Acacia Island (Exhibition)Exploded Diagram
Fantasy Babble Factory
Exploded diagram of Dine in the Flowers
Fantasy Babble Factory
Exploded diagram of Baiqi Café Interior