- Project: Shui Zui Zhong Guo
- Architect: CUN DESIGN
- Location: China, Dongchaoshidai, Chaoyang District, Beijing
- Year: 2022
- Area: 1000 m2
In the rapidly evolving real estate landscape of China, architecture often struggles to reconcile cultural depth with contemporary demands. Against this backdrop, CUN DESIGN created Shui Zui Zhong Guo, a 1,000 m² cultural and office complex in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, completed in 2022.
The project embodies a decade of inquiry into Chinese culture and modern expression, transforming a Bauhaus-style industrial shell into a living dialogue between tradition and modernity, spirituality and function.
Two Worlds, One Identity
The program splits into two distinct yet interconnected parts:
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Office space (600 m²): headquarters for the Shui Zui Zhong Guo cultural media brand.
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Shui Yuan (400 m²): a cultural venue for art, design, tea, jewelry, and seasonal exhibitions.
Although accessible through separate entrances, the spaces are connected by a corridor, evoking the relationship of front and back courtyards in traditional Chinese compounds. Together, they form what the architects call “twin blooms”—two different identities sharing the same root.
Shui Yuan: Returning to Primal Authenticity
Unlike conventional galleries characterized by blank white walls, Shui Yuan embraces raw materiality.
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Walls stripped to their original state reveal red bricks from 60 years ago, transforming from functional surfaces into textural backdrops for cultural performance.
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Six-meter-high ceilings with rounded grey columns create openness and emptiness, allowing art, light, and seasonal change to define the space.
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The design reflects wabi-sabi philosophy, positioning imperfection and transience as gateways to spiritual reflection.
Here, tea ceremonies, flower arrangements, jewelry exhibitions, and furniture design animate the cultural hub, turning it into a stage for Eastern aesthetics in contemporary form.
The Office: Contemporary Expression of Tradition
The office side adopts modern design methodologies but weaves in subtle Eastern metaphors:
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Twelve abandoned steel columns were re-integrated as organizing elements, anchoring functional zones.
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Circulation flows like a Chinese garden, with meandering paths and shifting perspectives.
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Entry niches and peeking screens introduce playfulness and visual surprise, breaking solemnity.
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At dusk, orange lighting reminiscent of the Forbidden City casts shadows on grey brick floors, embedding history within daily routines.
The result is an office space that feels both innovative and rooted, balancing productivity with cultural identity.
Philosophy: Light, Spirit, and State
Lead designer Cui Shu emphasizes that design is not about material or form alone but about the state of people in space.
“The ultimate goal of design is not architecture or space, but rather the state of people—the unconsciousness of being within space, and the spiritual pleasure that arises from it.”
This ethos guides Shui Zui Zhong Guo, making it less a building and more a journey toward truth and authenticity.
Spatial Narratives: From Courtyard to Garden
The interplay between light, shadow, and circulation creates an environment that mirrors the Chinese garden tradition. Just as historical gardens were designed to reveal views gradually—“every step, a new scene”—the project reveals spaces through subtle sequencing:
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Peek-through niches invite curiosity.
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Changing light conditions transform material surfaces over time.
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Corridors and courtyards embody a rhythm of intimacy, openness, and reflection.
By merging Eastern poetics with modern minimalism, the project builds bridges between memory and modernity, spirituality and daily life.
The Shui Zui Zhong Guo project stands as an icon of cultural resilience in contemporary China. By restoring material honesty and weaving tradition into everyday work and cultural life, CUN DESIGN demonstrates that spaces can embody more than utility—they can host philosophy, memory, and spirit.
This project not only reflects on how Chinese culture can be expressed today but also presents a model for future adaptive reuse, where design becomes a vessel for aesthetic care, spiritual meaning, and collective cultural dialogue.
Drawings
