Cycle&Cycle Stone-Oven Bakery Restaurant

The project is located in Fusheng Village, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China. Originally built in the 1970s as a rural auditorium in support of Nixon’s visit to China, the building carries a distinctive historical legacy. The design reconfigures the interior order by scaling up the stone oven to serve as the spatial centerpiece. An open layout invites the natural landscape indoors, while a combination of local construction techniques and standardized materials yields a restrained yet rustic dining space that honors the auditorium’s original public character.

The Client’s original vision was to return bread to its rural roots and create a stone-oven bakery of truly world-class standard, with the oven itself already ordered. However, the original interior was a single large open space lacking the spatial organization required for dining functions. Although the equipment itself measured 2.7 meters in diameter and 2.2 meters in height—dimensions that could certainly serve as a visual focal point in an urban setting—this scale proved insufficient within the existing space, making it difficult to achieve the desired spatial tension.

The main constraints of the project stem from site and construction conditions. On the one hand, the project is situated in a rural environment, and we did not want to turn the space toward an urban, refined expression. On the other hand, the construction team is also from the village, relying largely on traditional manual techniques, requiring the design to strike a balance between expression and buildability.

In terms of materials and construction methods, we adopted a pragmatic approach: using standardized marine plywood as a base, which was then processed and assembled on-site by local carpenters to create a flexible timber bracket system, extended into furniture and fixtures. Some of the seating incorporates prefabricated cork yoga blocks, serving functional needs while also allowing for future disassembly and reuse.

Design: Tens Atelier
Design Lead: Tan Chen, YUI
Design Team: Guo Ankey, Jiao Huimin
Architectural Design: Fan Architectural Firm (FANAF)
Graphic Design: MORE Studio
Photography: half.half.