Exception · Fangsuo Commune-Architects-FEI Architects,FEI Arts

Owner: Exception Clothing

Location: MU35, B1, Taikoo Hui Mall, Tianhe District, Guangzhou

Area: 1,600sqm

Completion: 2011

As the longest and the first Chinese designer brand for women on the international stage, Exception has achieved great success in business operation and brand promotion. On the occasion of its 15th Anniversary, the company plans to set up a concept store, besides expanding from women's fashion to men's fashion and home wear, it also covers bookstore, coffee shop, designer homeware, indoor plant and exhibition space. Exception will no longer be just a clothing brand, but an advocator of “another” lifestyle.

The brand's concept is to redefine futurism with naturalism.

“Group Meditation” between Heaven and Earth

Our intention is to transform a shop in the basement into a garden with mountain and lake in the natural world.

Amid the dazzling lights of the city, the faint light from a dark “rock cave” attracts people to seek a quiet place to rest their souls.

While passing through the cave, the jungle, lake, floating island and distant mountain could be clearly seen. The bookstore on the other side is the only building, which adopts the common prototype of both the East and the West.

Cave

Jungle

Lack

Floating Island

Distant Mountain

“Fangsuo” refers to a place.

Exception wants to make Fangsuo a platform for “group meditation” (internal cultivation) and advocates a positive and introspective attitude towards life.

Entrance – Cracked Rock Strata

The 15m wide storefront is divided into two sections owing to restriction of the fire shutter’s size, and there are several large inclined concrete pillars. The entrance is a three-dimensional section composed of steel and wood, which is a metaphor for opening the sky and splitting the ground, and the inclined pillars represent primitive jungle.

Front Book Gallery – Bookstore

The Front Book Gallery has an extra function of holding lectures and forums, and is a place for “preaching" being the only building in the entire “natural world”. It adopts the architectural style of ancient times. With repeated arrangement of aluminum strips to imitate branches, and bamboos to build a simple sloping roof, a “house” is thus completed. The original design is to make the whole roof transparent to admit daylight, but it has to be given up owing to the inadequate ceiling height.

Back Book Gallery – “Book Mountain with Diligence as Path” House

Book means knowledge and represents a kind of life pursuit, which is similar to the mountain in “nature”. “You have to climb a mountain before you can enjoy the view”. In the Chinese garden, mountain represents enterprising spirit. The design raises the back book gallery to 900mm, so after slowly climbing to the peak through the ramp, one could look back at the “Aesthetic Life Area” – a lake in the garden. The book gallery is enclosed by 800-900-high low cabinets, and from the perspective of Aesthetic Life Area and Stationery Area, it is a “garden wall” with a height of 1700-1800mm, which is used to display aesthetic goods. Most of the goods in the whole Aesthetic Life Area are of independent designer brands featuring hand-made, which emphasizes inner feelings and represents meditation – “contemplating by the lake makes one’s mind clear”.

咖啡區——島

Coffee Area – Island

The coffee area is an island in the “lake” distinguishing between movement and silence. The lotus-shaped fence divides the seats into small areas so that they will not interfere with each other even if in a tight position.