Offhand Practice Designs a Cave-Like Gallery in Shanghai

A pebble-washed facade and recessed doorway mark Single Person’s street presence in Shanghai's Xuhui district, while beyond the low, rounded doorway is a cave-like vintage design gallery

Having already designed the home of Single Person’s owner, Shanghai architecture and interior design studio Offhand Practice was called on to transform a former diner into a gallery space. The site’s long, narrow floor plan and lack of natural light inspired the designers to conceive a cave narrative that defines the entire space. The low, arched entry gives way to a linear layout, where four individual rooms are defined by a series of existing elevations. Visitors walk deeper and further down into the space before emerging at the rear courtyard — the only source of natural light aside from the entryway. These elevations emphasise the sense of depth and progression through the ‘cave’, alongside an earthy colour palette that gradates from white enamel to ochre to darker sienna. Textured walls and curves at once enhance and soften the cavernous space, while lighting has been conceived to emphasise the cave-like feeling, with irregular niches punctuating the walls and mimicking candlelight, and a row of deep-set skylights designed to emulate the way light filters down into a cave.

Words / Simone Schultz 
Images / Yiqing Gao