WZWX Architecture Group's Innovative Concept Store: Rou by T Ham

Refrigerator-Inspired Design Merges Traditional Butchery with Modern Retail

The client's vision was to create a new kind of meat store that would incorporate the best aspects of traditional and modern meat retail. The store's design needed to accommodate a butchery and meat shop on the first floor, with a multipurpose space for tastings, dining, and events on the second floor. The design challenge was to create a space that would define this new kind of meat store and unify these functions.

The design concept was inspired by the refrigerator, a machine that keeps food fresh. The rounded forms, curved corners, and customized lights of fridge interiors inspired the store's formal vocabulary. In the first-floor butchery and meat shop, raw and cooked meats were allocated to opposing sides for hygiene control, with the shop's center occupied by a large fridge displaying premier meat items. The back of the house and gift wrapping station were pushed to the back.

The store's interior features a combination of wood veneers, fibrous cement boards, and sandstone tiles to create a natural and comfortable ambiance. Grey veneer gives the downstairs "fridge" space a cooler tone, while warmer colored woods such as stained walnut and Chinese parasol tree adorn the upstairs, giving the restaurant/multipurpose space a contrasting, softer atmosphere. Granite stone defines two feature walls of the first-floor butchery, with one pattern evoking muscle fibers and another the "marbling" of meat.

The second-floor dining space continues the fridge aesthetic with round corners wrapping around structural members to visually reduce their dimensions. The ceiling and beams adopt a lighter color than the columns to make the space appear "taller". Curtains and hidden sliding wooden panels allow plenty of flexibility to subdivide the interior for various usages.

The design of this meat store has not only defined a new spatial identity for T Ham but also resolved complicated program requirements in a confined space. The result is a butchery like no other in design and atmosphere. The design concept of a fridge interior permeates the space through rounded forms, curved corners, and customized lights. A combination of natural materials keeps the ambiance natural and comfortable. Careful zoning of raw and cooked meat sections, intelligent design of storage, and furniture for future maintenance contributes to a hygienic and practical shop.