The history of the original building in this project dates back to 1895, when the Suzhou Silk Spinning Factory was founded by Zhang Zhidong, the Governor of Liangjiang and the Minister of the Nanyang Trade. It was the first modern textile factory in Suzhou. The original building underwent multiple expansions and renovations throughout the 20th century before the factory was declared bankrupt in 2005. In 2012, a comprehensive renovation was carried out across the entire industrial park, transforming it into a mixed-use urban commercial complex.
Project Name: MARUS COFFEE & Coffee Academy
Studio Name: Atelier IN
Address: Sulunchang Industrial Park，Suzhou
Client: MARUS COFFEE
Completion: September 2024
Building Area: 437㎡
Architect: Zhouxi Bi/Sen Yan/Dawei Xu/Jinlong Li
Construction Team: Suzhou Guangxin Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd.
Photographer: Yifan Chen
Suzhou, as a city, has distinctive regional architectural characteristics. We abstracted three key elements from traditional garden architecture—“pavilions,” “corridors,” and “views”—and sought to combine these elements with the inherent attributes of the original building. The lower floor of the original structure contained a row of hidden columned corridors, which were downplayed in the 2012 renovation, and the facades were enclosed with glass curtain walls, thereby clearly separating the interior and exterior spaces.
Therefore, the first task upon receiving the original drawings was to respond to the columned corridors that had disappeared for various reasons and the residual “gray space” on the facade. Our initial approach was to restore the gray space that should have existed on the facade, but this direct restoration of the space felt somewhat simplistic and imposing. After comparing multiple proposals, we decided to use the following design approach, illustrated in the axonometric view, to place a “pavilion.” The original glass curtain walls were replaced with galvanized steel panels, and the columns were presented in an embedded manner. The inclined, cantilevered roof not only provides gray space for visitors or passersby but also transforms the commercial spaces on the ground floor, extending the facade from the original street-side corridor into a volume embedded within the building, thus forming what we call the “house.”
The so-called “pavilion” is defined as a structure with a roof, where the space beneath the roof is not fully enclosed, and it has an inviting quality that encourages people to linger. As shown in the diagram, we have incorporated two pavilions with different characteristics into the overall space. The first pavilion is an inclined roof that extends outward from the facade. It does not detach from the facade but instead slopes over it, creating an interplay between the inclined roof and the interior space. This undetached inclined surface, in its pure symbolism, distances itself from the decorative elements of the wall, transforming it into both a part of the facade and, in an abstract sense, a “pavilion,” thus giving it a pavilion-like spatial quality.
The first “pavilion” is related to the site, while the second “pavilion” focuses on the interaction between the barista and the customer. Within the “pavilion,” the space under the eaves is divided into two parts by an enclosing bar counter: one part belongs to the barista, and the other part belongs to the customer. The centrally located oval bar counter is the barista’s domain, which can be understood as the barista’s performance “stage.” It allows the barista to both prepare and serve coffee while maintaining an adequate sense of enclosure and enough space for interaction with the customer. Outside the bar counter, the space between the eaves and the four columns beneath them is reserved for the customer. This area offers both a sense of belonging to the pavilion and the experience of sitting around and watching the “stage” at the center.
The “pavilion” we envision is not an isolated island, but rather a structure that appears to be isolated within the “garden” yet is actually connected to the surrounding landscape, spaces, and even the original building, constantly generating dialogue. To establish this relationship, we extended the I-beams and steel columns of the pavilion structure from within the pavilion outward, intersecting with the wall of the original building on the west side. On the east side, the extension forms new walls and corridors, creating a connection with the environment outside the pavilion.
