Peculiar shapes reminiscent of a series of spinning top toys will draw you into the flagship store of Zhuyeqing.

Zhuyeqing is a renowned brand of green tea in China, serving premium tea grown in Chengdu, China. Growing to become one of the largest premium tea brands in China, Zhuyeqing seeks to bring a one-of-a-kind flagship store to Chengdu. For this very special project, award-winning, Shanghai-based design studio X+Living was chosen for its innovative approach to designing immersive brand experiences. Earlier this year, we featured X+Living’s spectacular parent-and-child restaurant, YooYuumi, where guests are transported into a fairy-tale-like environment. This time, the same design team delivered a visually impactful retail space inspired by the freehand brushwork in traditional Chinese painting to bring guests a tea-drinking experience that will ignite all senses.

Upon entering the establishment, guests are welcomed into a space filled with unique, dome-shaped pieces, some strictly for aesthetics while others double as a functional piece of furniture. The exaggerated domes are a simulation of hills, mountains, and clouds - a theme that pays homage to the beautiful natural environment of where the tea leaves of Zhuyeqing are grown.

Built upon the traditional Chinese saying of ‘drinking tea requires both a favourable environment and a good mood’, the unique setting uses a neutral pallet and plenty of smooth, rounded edges to lift your mood and prep your senses for an aromatic tea-tasting experience. At the heart of the store is a cozy tea tasting area cocooned within a similar, mountain-shaped dome. Here, guests can sample teas in a more intimate setting, while still feeling connected to the store by peering through the semi-transparent screen.

Before designing the store, X+Living fully explored the consumers’ sensory needs as well as the store’s requirement for product displays. To create a functional space without compromising on aesthetics, product display shelves featuring packaged teas from Zhuyeqing are integrated seamlessly into the mountain-like sculptures throughout. Having the shelf openings designed to face the back of the store allows for a clean, polished look from the storefront. It is only when guests enter and wander through the establishment will they discover the products behind the wooden sculptural shelves.

The mountain-shaped counters extend naturally into the vertical and horizontal space, abstractly simulating ‘clouds and mountains’ similar to how it is depicted through traditional Chinese freehand ink painting. With the use of mirror imagery, each of the domes also extends downwards, transforming the ‘mountain’ into ‘cloud’. The two natural symbols appropriately describe the ecological origin of the Zhuyeqing green tea. The soft and seemingly organic outlines of these shapes reminisce the natural, freehand strokes on Chinese ink paintings. To further capture the essence of this centuries-old craft, a stainless-steel backdrop with a similar grayscale tone is used to evoke the ethereal effect of paintings.

The spontaneous arrangements of sizes and heights of the displays perfectly emulate the unorderly nature of clouds and mountains. However, each item was strategically laid out to open a path for guests to explore. Walking through the space will feel as if you are traveling through the clouds - giving you a sense of wonder as you admire the fairyland-like setting while discovering the diverse product lines of Zhuyeqing. Plenty of counters with tall bar stools allow you to sit down at any point to indulge in a cup of tea or simply enjoy a peaceful moment.

Zhuyeqing sets a wondrous example of immersive brand experiences that mobilize all five senses. If you are ever to visit Chengdu, we strongly suggest you pay a visit to experience this unique retail concept that brings new meaning to traditional tea consumption. To discover more projects by X+Living, visit here.

Project Details

Project name: Zhuyeqing Green Tea Flagship Store

Location: Chengdu, China

Area: 96 m2

Completion time: September 2019

Design company: X+Living

Chief designer: Li Xiang

Project directors: Ren Lijiao, Wu Feng

Photography: Shao Feng