NOWSEE

Agency: Informal Design
Client: NOWSEE

Different from traditional commercial spaces, NOWSEE plays an essential and friendly role in the community. Interweaving with the city and nature, it collects diverse community lifestyles and constructs a community hub that integrates "neighborhood life, retail, art exhibitions, and child-friendliness". The goal is to bring a daily experience of exploring the urban context and catching nature in the moment.

NOWSEE grows from a community street corner, with five interconnected facade blocks inserted into the architecture in an outward form. The swaying plants, gray pavements, warm road lamps and window seats extend inwards along the expansive pedestrian street, combining street-style layout with landscape. The street-style open circulation route vividly presents urban street elements from the inside to the outside. The design team removed the original door and windows, and installed large transparent floor-to-ceiling push-pull glazing, to create a simple yet unified facade image. Echoing with interior lighting design, the show windows are organized in sequence, which allows daylight in and thus ensures an open and bright indoor environment. NOWSEE assumes some functions of the property sales center, and is an important commercial destination in the community in long term. The well-organized tables and seats in the interior, as well as the outdoor seating beside windows, provide diverse settings that can be redefined by users. The interior is harmonious and concise, with an open vibe and flexible layout. Irregular modular units combined with few walls, structural columns and low display racks create an open space realm for daily life. The fluid circulations allow people to explore freely throughout the multi-layered space. The bar counter is the central point, surrounded by different functions such as the retail area, art exhibition area, stepped reading area, casual dining area, and business negotiation area. These areas are integrated into a unified visual structure, with the retail area updated seasonally to generate diversified contents in NOWSEE. In terms of spatial renovation and material selection, the design team tried to minimize the wastage of the existing building components and maximize the potential for future reuse by retaining the original flat eaves, pebblewash, and interior cement walls. The minimalist approaches and natural, simple materials result in an approachable and inviting spatial tone. To meet the display needs through minimal space transformation, the design team adopted prefabricated and modular fixtures including customized tables and seats, transparent components, and aluminum racks in NOWSEE. Other shelves are made of aluminum square tubes and stainless-steel plates that allow for adjustable display angles and a variety of display combinations by replacing fixtures.