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Linehouse was comissioned by Shui On to design Foodie Social, a new food market catering for the neighbourhood of Hong Shou Fang, an area in Shanghai’s Putuo district prevalent in the typical Shanghainese ‘longtang’ laneway residential architecture. This new typology brings together the local with more curated food offerings in a contemporary yet humble and sustainable way. Linehouse conceived the market interior as that of a greenhouse. A central double height atrium space is carved out and lined with a series of undulating balconies that serve as occupiable seating niches and planters. Green hanging plants spill over the railing, where visitors can spectate the active market scene below.
Foodie Social at Hong Shou Fang is part of a new small-scaled urban regeneration development that opens to public located in Shanghai city center. With a site history that dates back to 1933, Linehouse's design aims to evoke people's memories of the local culture — the culture of lilong (which literally means lanes and alleys) neighborhoods — creating an exquisite life and living experience. Foodie Social is a round-the-clock consumption venue with a carefully curated and composed mix of F&B and retail programme that caters to the diverse needs of its immediate local community. With stores open as early as 6am and some restaurants stay up for business as late as 2am, the local population will have an enriched experience through the immersive cultural and consumption experience.
The glass pitched roof is lined with a gently curved metal truss, inspired by Victorian greenhouses. Natural sunlight introduced through skylights streams into the market hall during the day, creating brightness and vibrancy. Hanging from the metal truss, three large fans circulate the air in the atrium, reducing the need for mechanical dependency. Sustainable materials sourced from local demolished houses showing their natural patina, recycled red bricks line the entrance façade and interior walls, in direct contrast to the existing grey brick. On the front façade, a double-height arrangement of stacked red bricks and a corten steel canopy mark the main entrance into Foodie Social. Inside, the bricks are stacked to create three dimensional patterns as they move from wall to wall.
Foodie Social is a two-storey grey brick market hall, the largest building within a series of buildings laid out in the Longtang alley structure of the original Hong Shou Fang site. The market features various typologies of food vendors. Centered in the middle of the open atrium on the ground floor are market stalls designed with various permutations of permanency to allow for flexibility for different types of vendors. Some stalls are designed to be retractable, placed in strategic positions to allow for a large open space for events in the middle. The stalls are designed as a kit of parts allowing the vendors to create their own signage and layout but maintaining a uniformed material and lighting palette. On the ground floor’s perimeter are smaller fixed snack shops, while larger fixed restaurants occupy the second floor. Restaurants are encouraged to spill out onto the generous circulation corridors and to occupy the balconies around open atrium. As part of the larger market is a smaller wetmarket which caters for the local community and can also be accessed from the building’s street frontage. Opening earlier than the main market, at 6am, the wetmarket is the place for locals to buy fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and fish at parity prices. Linehouse designed this space as a robust functional space; lined with a red terracotta tiled floor, timber fixtures and shelves, and a black metal rail system that sails above the stalls to hang produce, signage, and lights.
The role of the market in the larger cities in China has inevitably changed due to the rise of online food deliveries. The commercial success of Hong Shou Fang shows that new progressive placemaking and diverse offerings can redefine the meaning of the market within a community.
Linehouse is an architecture and interior design practice established in 2013 by Alex Mok and Briar Hickling. Both have completed extensive work in Asia and abroad.
Linehouse operates as a platform to investigate the rituals of inhabitation and how these daily moments can be celebrated through design, transforming the mundane into performative acts.
Linehouse is a collaboration of like-minded individuals from various backgrounds and cultures. The practice has international experience in design and construction, from the small scale and the intricate, to the grand and public.
The studio works on projects of varying scales and typologies that allow explorations of both the poetic idea and pragmatic solution. Projects are approached in a holistic manner combining different disciplines: architecture, interiors, product design and graphic design; and drawing on our experience to create new ideas and outputs emphasising qualities of construction, detail, materials and light.
