Melt Season — Baicai Design

Project

Retail
Cultural
Restaurants and Bar
Cafe and Bakery
Other

Melt Season

Melt Season is a high-end niche fragrance brand based in Shanghai. It seeks to reinterpret traditional sensibilities through a contemporary lens, using scent to connect people with nature. For this project, Baicai Design was commissioned to create a spatial setting for the launch of a new fragrance series, integrating art, space, and product into a unified sensory experience.

Credits

委托方：melt season
空间设计：白菜设计
策展人：冯雅菲
空间合作艺术家：李颖颖、胡约华、胡晓文、魏小盐、姚念宇、李可华
施工方：上海顺美广告

The exhibition is located on the ground floor of the Rockbund Yuan Zongan Meifeng Building in Shanghai. Originally a historic structure from the early 20th century, the building was later renovated by architect David Chipperfield. The exterior retains its red-brick façade and historical character, while the interior offers a tall, open, and undefined volume. Within this context, we introduced installations and display systems to activate the space without disrupting its existing architectural presence.

Titled The Traces of Impermanence, the exhibition centers around three new fragrances. The brand collaborated with artist Li Yingying, who created corresponding artworks inspired by each scent. The spatial design is structured around both product and artwork, developing a cohesive display language that translates olfactory qualities into spatial and visual experiences. On the façade, we abstracted the spatial installation language into graphic elements and embedded them into the glass surface, forming a unified outward expression together with the brand identity. The façade becomes an extension of the exhibition concept. By aligning interior content with each window, the space is both revealed to the street and transformed into a visual interface.

The plan follows a linear sequence of experience. Upon entry, visitors are first drawn to a central installation, then proceed through three distinct exhibition zones, each dedicated to a fragrance. Semi-open partitions define individual atmospheres, allowing scent, artwork, and spatial elements to unfold within their own contexts.

Beyond the three exhibition zones lies the area for brand events, presentations, and retail. This space continues the material and spatial language while remaining intentionally understated. By reducing its visual presence, the focus remains on the exhibition experience, allowing the primary narrative to stay intact.

We see this exhibition not merely as a presentation of products, but as a spatial practice of perception. Scent, material, and body interact within a shared environment, turning a fleeting moment into a memorable experience. In the flow of time, space becomes a medium that holds the ephemeral, and a way for people to form a connection with the brand.

About

Baicai Design is a multidisciplinary design practice based in New York and Shenyang, working across architecture, interiors, exhibitions, and spatial design. Its practice spans different geographies, scales, and cultural contexts.

Founded by Kaiwen Zhao, Baicai is shaped by his interdisciplinary background in design and architecture. Zhao studied Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture. He currently teaches in the Department of Industrial Design at RISD, and has previously taught at the University of Colorado Denver, lectured at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and served as a guest critic at Syracuse University.

Baicai approaches space beyond the conventional boundaries of interior design, bringing together architectural and product design thinking to address spatial questions. Through different scales of intervention, we explore the relationships between space, objects, and human behavior.

Awards

FRAME Wellness Space of the year Shortlisted
2026

Paris Design Awards Winner
2026

MUSE Design Awards Gold Winner
2026

Dezeen China Rising Firm of the Year
2025

POSITION Award China Best 100 Young Architect
2024

Guangzhou Design Week 40 Under 40
2024

AD China 100 YOUNG
2022-2024

Architizer Best Young Interior Design Firm Special Mention
2024

Forbes China 30 Under 30
2023

FRAME Small Residential of the year Shortlisted
2023

FRAME Award Best Emerging Designer Nominee
2023

APIDA Design Award Excellence Award
2023

FRAME Pop-up Store of the Year
2022

FRAME Window Display of the Year Shortlisted
2022

WYDF TOP 100 Designer
2022

Dezeen Award Shortlisted
2022

Architecture Masterprize Best of The Bests
2022

AD China 100 YOUNG
2020-2022

Architecture Masterprize Honorable Mention
2022

KUKAN Design Award Shortlisted
2022

DNA Award Winner in Workplace Design
2022

DNA Award Honorable Mention in Workplace Design
2022

DNA Award Honorable Mention in Showroom Design
2022

K-Design Award Winner
2022

Novum Design Award Gold Award
2022

Novum Design Award Silver Award
2022

IDA Design Award Honorable Mention
2022

FRAME Best of the Month
2022 April

Design for Asia Award Bronx Award
2021

Design for Asia Award Excellence Award
2021

IDEA Design Award Finalist
2021

Golden Pin Design Award Winner
2021

Golden Pin Design Award Honorable Mention
2022

Vestibulum Inceptos Gravida, Ornare Review,
by Tincidunt Nisl
2024

Ullamcorper Faucibus (Congue) Euismod, by Ligula Parturient, Bibendum Review Porta Libero
2023

Dictumst Tristique, Facilisis Magazine, Edition Two, Porta Libero
2021

Auctor Adipiscing Art Magazine, Porta Libero
2020

Sollicitudin Ornare Magazine,
Porta Libero
2020

Press