There are few design briefs more quietly demanding than a tea shop. The ritual of tea — its slowness, its precision, its insistence on presence — sets a high bar for the architecture that houses it. Keiji Ashizawa, the Tokyo-based architect known for his measured, material-conscious approach, has met that bar with the new Shanghai flagship for Basao, a Chinese tea brand increasingly recognized for marrying traditional tea culture with contemporary retail sensibility.
Keiji Ashizawa's Basao Flagship Finds Harmony Between Tea Culture and Shanghai's Historic Rockbund
Japanese architect Keiji Ashizawa has designed a flagship store for Chinese tea brand Basao in Shanghai's Rockbund district, drawing on both the area's historic architecture and David Chipperfield Architects' celebrated restoration of the precinct. The result is a contemplative retail-café hybrid that feels entirely at home among the district's layered history.
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