This façade renovation project recently completed by Shanghai based architectural practice, Atelier Archmixing is a small part for Hengshanfang Historical Area Regeneration Program, Shanghai. The building locates in a downtown commercial center, at the corner of two leafy historical streets.
This old villa, future boutique shop or office, is now covered with a skin of two different textures, traditional gray bricks mixing with unique luminous bricks. With the same scale and similar color, both materials share the same quiet appearance during the day, but when night falls, the new bricks suddenly become shinning. What a dramatic experience! Pedestrians nearby are always deeply attracted.
The tectonic details are carefully designed to create a coherent face for this historical building but completely different expression during different time. For Atelier Archmixing, to change materials and tectonics is simply to achieve difference for these everyday commercial buildings.
