“Hope you can have a regular job and live with freedom.” Only a romantic person can utter such romantic words and designers are undoubtedly those with the most romantic thoughts. When poems and future become the hope of most city office workers, designers subtly awake to dissatisfaction of people, as well as Mr. Pan himself, towards the current environment space.

Why not let “poem and future” become a part of our daily life? Consequently, Mr. Pan decided to reshape the current space to make it a reality. It sounds a bit impulsive but it has been found that nothing else than such impulsion and pursuit that derive an accessible poetic space--- the “Hui She”.

Hui She, located in the 3F of Huazhi Building, Ningbo National Hi-tech Zone, is a part of HUiD and comprises of 75 m2 interior space and 45 m2 terrace. As the Hui She is on the third floor of the whole building, the guests will enter into the building and reach Hui She via the terrace, which features reverse steam line with traditional gardening space streaming. The original design intention of the building where the Hui She locates is also to create a gardening space in the modern city. This is perfectly in harmony with thoughts in Mr. Pan’s mind and provides favorable innate condition for the reformation.

In Hui She, there is a tearoom in the interior with a eight-seat long tea table, a bar counter, a storeroom and an alcohol fireplace wall space, as well as a eight-seat outdoor long table and a BBQ in outdoor terrace. The overall functional zone is mainly divided into the interior space and the terrace space with a 300mm elevated tatami tearoom transited in the middle.

Originally the wall facing to the terrace was enclosed. However, Mr. Pan, with his great efforts, managed to persuade the building’s owner to push over the wall and let the widespread green decorate the space. The design is achieving a great success for the most part as long as the designer finds out and highlights the brightest part of the space.

A square iron box is arranged between the tearoom and the terrace to replace the original enclosed wall and realizes the space extension via a folding door, which could be fully opened. Thus, there generates another surprise during the visiting from the tearoom to the terrace---a tatami style tearoom, the quiet but flexible place closely integrating greenery, sunshine, oxygen and inventiveness in the interior and outdoor communication under the open and the enclosed space.

The most precious things in the city are tender sunshine, fresh air and wide-spread greenery. While lots of the spaces at present are disconnecting the relation between human and nature, especially those in modern office buildings with window shade in daytime and central ventilation system for air. People pass through high-rise housing and office space, and are completely isolated from the nature.

How to create a Jiangnan scholar space with contemporary characteristics in the modern urban space? How to bring poems and feature to us with modern materials and spatial arrangement instead of imitating the traditional style? These are the question always in Mr. Pan’s mind, while the Hui She is exactly the experimental trial. 

The surrounding big trees of the Hui She make the space full of oxygen and people could naturally get relaxed when having some tea inside. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful place to receiving the sound of nature when chatting with friends? As to reach this state, Mr. Pan plant bamboos for landscaping and use a nearly 3000mm old manger, ancient ink-stone and local bamboo tube to achieve the water circulation and bring the sound of flowing water into the space and fancy carps in the pond to generate living pleasure into the space. Matching with the centuries-old stone bench in the brand new environment, the comparison also creates the trace of history in the new space.

The renovated Hui She is a space integrated with tearoom, art exhibition and design that can give expression to a Jiangnan-style aesthetic life. Meanwhile, this is not only the place for entertaining customers, but also an elegant house for friends of tea; and also could be a party site themed in BBQ; and even a space for sharing “poems and feature”.

There must be combined Chinese and western features in our modern life. A real-flame alcohol fireplace is designed in the other side of the interior Hui She as the center of the whole space with water and fire in both ends respectively as echo, of which the expression form of water representing Jiangnan and the one of fire representing the western. The modern one-piece cabinet is already sufficient for daily needs.     

Creating an exquisite and comfortable space with true, simple and nature materials is the thing HUiD always persisting. The project adopts the most common materials --- cement, terrazzo, aluminum square tube and slate as base and construct and also the visible and touchable finished surfaces. It is the value of design to achieve the sense of design upon recombination. The whole renovation is a process of thoughts organization and restart. To discover an area to accomplish the close consistency between the city and the nature in this prosperous city makes us believe both poems and feature could also be accessible in our daily life.