PROJECT: Jen's House Antique Shop

Chengdu China  2016

Modern life in Chinese metropolitan cities is very fast paced, multiple things may be happening at the same time within one second, while the antique furniture was produced before the year 1830, over 185 years ago, when people’s daily life was totally different from nowadays, which used to be much more localized, and people were willing to spend more time to focus on one single object with details.

The antique shop is located at a storefront in a newly developed district in Chengdu, just a little bit bigger than 200m2. Once entering the shop, we want people to slow down and change the mental state to concentrate on the beautifully hand crafted furniture. Making use of the space height and creating rich layers of spatial sequences, visiting circulation in this limited area is prolonged, in order to extent the time and enhance the experiences between the visitors and the antiques, and to bring people’s thinking back into time.

The circulation area is designed to be dark, while where the antiques are placed is bright, elevated and framed. By creating such contrast, the uniqueness and preciousness of the antiques get emphasized. Metallic reflective material is used as the cladding of the display boxes to further strengthen the contrast between the old and new, to make people aware of the value of the antiques, which cannot be copied nowadays.