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WaterStone Waterstone is a multi-brand boutique in Shenyang. Its new store reconsiders the relationship between retail space and people, creating a place that encourages visitors to pause and stay. The circulation and displays unfold like a garden journey: shifting levels, passages, and openings are gradually revealed, allowing the space to be discovered through movement, turns, and pauses.
Project Info:

Status: built, 2026
Area: 485sqm
Client: WaterStone
Location: Shenyang, Liaoning
Photography: Tupai Photography Located in Shenyang’s Granary Cultural and Creative Park, the project occupies a relatively independent two-story building. Part of the existing floor slab was removed, allowing the staircase, seating, fitting rooms, and double-height void to form a continuous spatial insertion. Organized around this core, the two floors are reconnected through a circular route, transforming the staircase from simple vertical circulation into a key visual and social node.

We wanted the space to remain honest, shaped not by added forms but by direct relationships between space, structure, material, and people. Exposed concrete, wood, metal, and white walls form a restrained material palette. New interventions sit alongside the existing building, while their structures and boundaries remain deliberately legible.

The same restraint extends to the façade. Rather than adding decoration, non-structural surfaces are set back to reveal the building’s structural frame. Stepping back becomes an act of subtraction and restraint. Concrete beams and columns, deep window openings, and recessed glazing give depth to the façade, while light, objects, and activity are revealed through openings of different scales.

This sense of openness also shapes the relationship between the building and its surroundings. Rather than equating openness with larger expanses of glass, windows, entrances, and platforms of different scales create moments of interaction and curiosity between inside and outside. A continuous platform extends activity beyond the interior, while framed openings offer partial glimpses into the store rather than revealing everything at once.

On the ground floor, visitors first encounter the café and bar facing directly toward the exterior. Furniture, objects, and retail displays then unfold within one continuous setting, softening the conventional boundary between shopping and leisure. Visitors may sit before browsing, or pause over an object, a chair, or a view outside.

The ground floor has a calm and warm material character. Wood is used extensively across floors, walls, and display furniture, contrasting with the exposed concrete of the original building. Vintage furniture, tableware, textiles, and plants are loosely arranged throughout. Objects of different periods and textures coexist, giving the space the quality of a lived-in environment that continues to accumulate over time.

In contrast, the second floor is younger, more open, and adaptable. Wood and metal, industrial components and everyday objects, precise new elements and weathered timber floors are placed in deliberate contrast. Timber frames define scale and display boundaries without forming enclosed rooms, while an open area accommodates changing pop-ups, exhibitions, and temporary events.

Waterstone explores how architecture can step back and give space back to its content. Rather than continuously adding to the space, the design seeks to establish meaningful relationships between objects, architecture, and human activity.







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.






AwardsFRAME 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

Press
Baicai Design’s work has received international media coverage across architecture, design, fashion, and culture. The studio has been featured in publications including Gestalten, INTERIORS, AD China, FRAME, Interior Design China, My Home, and id+c, alongside leading global platforms such as Dezeen, Leibal, Architizer, Divisare, Vogue, ELLE China, Yatzer, Cosmopolitan, gooood, Archilovers, Designverse, and Archello.

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