Genesis Skycellar / Superimpose Architecture

Architects: Superimpose Architecture
Location: Xin Yuan Nan Lu, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing，China
Architect In Charge: Carolyn Leung, Ben de Lange, Ruben Bergambagt
Design Team: Carolyn Leung, Ben de Lange, Ruben Bergambagt, Huimin Xie, Yujia Deng, Xiaoyu Xu, Casper Kraai
Area: 203.0 m2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: Marc Goodwin

Text description provided by the architects. Superimpose designed an exclusive members club and hidden wine cellar for a wine enthusiast. The project is situated at the top floor of one of Beijing’s newest and most high-end tower developments, the Genesis Community. Genesis Beijing is a mixed-use development combining a hotel, offices, gardens and a museum by Japanese Architect Tadao Ando. The members club will only be accessible to a private and selected group of members.

The members club is where the client organizes gatherings and stores and consumes his valuable wine and tea collection. The space is divided by a central element creating two distinctive worlds: the client’s office space and the private member’s club. Members enter through a hidden pivot-door into the exclusive member’s club that instantly offers spectacular views over Beijing’s embassy and financial districts. The golden stainless steel central element subtly reflects the skyline and naturally forms a backdrop of the entire members club.

A segment of the central divider is constructed with dark mirrored glass which mirrors the skyline and hides the ‘Sky Cellar’. This ‘Sky Cellar’ is a designed to be a reinterpretation of the traditional wine cellar.Members access into the hidden exclusive wine cellar through the automated sliding glass doors. The 25 sqm cellar stores up to 500 bottles of wine from six famous wine regions around the world; Bordeaux, Rhone Valley, Burgundy, Napa, Mosel and Barolo.

During day time, the mirrored glass doors hide the wine cellar and protects the wines from direct sunlight. The mirror doors allow members to admire both the wine and skyline whilst being inside the wine cellar. At sunset and during evening hours, the wine cellar lights up and reveals the 500 wine bottles to the main space.

An abstract representation of the six wine regions is installed underneath a glass floor with automated light. Superimpose designed the maps and constructed them by using concrete ash mud for the topography and stainless steel for the rivers. Within the stainless steel shelves, an acrylic base is being used and designed in such a way that it allows for multiple storing positions of the wine bottles. Bottles can be displayed and stored either stacked or inclined to display the bottle etiquette. At the same time the acrylic base allow for an optimised light distribution inside the wine cellar.