Anaago Bistro in Chongqing’s Ziwei Road is a captivating city block and a new experimental site for urban reconstruction. The design aims to create a vibrant community gathering place. A-na-guo means “beautiful and rich highland” in Naxi. With 32 households and 6 ethnicities, it offers a unique primitive environment.
Composed of primitive natural materials like bamboo and stones, Anaago’s unique architectural style showcases respect for the environment and cultural heritage. This style also inspires the design of Anaago Bistro.
Rhythm of the Village
In a refined narrow space, four organic “tribal boxes” were integrated using pure and natural materials, creating a natural and intricate community village. Bamboo, logs, and red stones intertwine into a natural and mysterious atmosphere, resembling an open symphony. The materials compose a unique melody of emotions, humanity, and nature, closely connecting every villager at the Bistro.
Organic and modern materials meet at the entrance of the village. Bamboo weaves semi-private spaces, city windows frame views, bridging indoor and outdoor. Entering the village, bamboo-woven private rooms with dim lighting and delicate walls soften the square space and infuse a warm, rustic atmosphere.
This small box serves as a transitional point in time and space, where crossing its threshold is akin to entering a natural dream within the village. The private room’s window offers a cinematic view, with urban neon lights spanning geographical distances, creating an immersive experience for the “village” residents.
As you walk past the private room, you’ll come across a bamboo screen wall interwoven with logs. The wooden windows bring a sense of natural meaning, and the space is filled with serene flow as the light softly falls and casts shadows on the bamboo surface. The small wooden windows, punctuated by bamboo walls, allow free flow between spaces, conveying a sense of lightness and freedom.
A secluded private room in the village features a seamless fusion of logs and site structure, with wooden walls, roof, and furniture presenting a unified and harmonious space. The distinctive mirror and window facade design fosters an open and transparent environment, evoking a natural Bistro-style ambiance. The use of mixed materials in the Anaago space expresses consideration and respect for the “villagers”.
Nature’s Treasures
Anaago’s design embodies Yunnan’s natural simplicity. Mixing bamboo, logs, and red cave stone creates a lively and storied space. Bamboo weaving adds a natural, delicate feel and blends well with other materials. Logs provide warmth and history.
The rough and textured volcanic rocks form a unique wall background. The fusion of traditional natural materials and warm, subdued lighting creates a softer and more mysterious ambiance in the space.
The use of red cave stone, cast iron, pure wood furniture, and decorations adds exquisite uniformity to the space. The bamboo weaving materials in the village, coupled with the unique lighting design, create a soft and mysterious lighting scene.
The design of Anaago aims to incorporate Yunnan’s unique features and beauty, blending natural materials and modern architectural vocabulary to create a small urban space full of modern Yunnan charm. The block renovation process takes the interaction between architecture, urban space, and people as its starting point, exploring modern design concepts and injecting new vitality into urban renewal.
Project information: Anaago Bistro; Location: Ziwei Road, Jiangbei District, Chongqing, China; Area: 130m. Completion time: October, 2022; Design firm: Chongqing Vari Architectural Design Co., Ltd; Principal designers: Fan Qi, Dingliang Yang; Design team: Yu Mou, Qi He; Article: Y.M; Photography: DID STUDIO;
