Tongrentang Offline Experience Store | Descry Design
Tongrentang Offline Experience Store by Ao Zhang

Tongrentang Offline Experience Store

Golden A' Design Award Winner 2021

Scanning this interior photograph from background to foreground, the listener encounters a sophisticated wellness and coffee experience space dominated by warm wood tones reminiscent of amber honey and polished chestnuts. The background features walls clad in rich wooden planking that suggests the warmth of a well-maintained library or apothecary, with floating shelves displaying books and objects that imply scholarly pursuits. To the right, commanding approximately one-third of the composition, hangs a large decorative panel in warm golden tones featuring an intricate etched illustration of a tree—its trunk centered with elaborate spiraling roots below and delicate branches extending upward bearing what appear to be medicinal plants or botanical specimens, the entire design executed in fine linear detail suggesting traditional woodcut or engraving techniques. The ceiling presents a complex overhead treatment featuring a geometric grid of white rectangular elements arranged in an interlocking pattern like woven fabric, through which snake organic brass pipes in warm yellow-gold finish, their curves meandering like golden vines before descending into pendant light fixtures holding elongated clear glass cylinders that suggest laboratory equipment or alchemical vessels. Moving to the foreground, a substantial service counter spans the width of the image, its front faced in rustic oak planking with visible grain that would feel textured and slightly rough like weathered driftwood, while its top surface presents cool grey stone smooth as polished river rock. Arranged along the counter stand various coffee preparation implements: gleaming siphon brewers with glass chambers like scientific apparatus, dark cylindrical grinders, and copper-toned serving equipment. Three bar stools with slender brass frames curved in graceful loops support cushioned seats upholstered in sage green that suggests cool moss or eucalyptus leaves.

Tongrentang Zhima Health has created a complex functional system of healthy diet, medical center, health examination and social entertainment. The designer Yong Wong has applied a large area of contrasting materials as solid wood and brass in the store. From the ground floor to upstairs, Zhima Health Concept Store has four themes as inquiry, food, convalescence and cure.