Snow Peak Cafe in Suzhou by KiKi ARCHi: Minimalist Design in a Red Brick Warehouse

Situated at the edge of the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou, the Snow Peak Cafe occupies a carefully preserved red brick structure originally built in the 1950s. Once part of a warehouse complex, the two-story building has been transformed by KiKi ARCHi into a spatial narrative that intertwines industrial heritage with natural sensibility. Under the direction of architect Yoshihiko Seki, the project foregrounds a restrained intervention strategy that articulates the client’s ethos, “Embrace Your Nature”, through a nuanced dialogue with site, material, and form.

Snow Peak Cafe Technical Information

• Architects^1-3: KiKi ARCHi
• Location: Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
• Gross Area: 200 m² | 2,150 Sq. Ft.
• Original Warehouse: 1950s
• Completion Year: 2024
• Photographs: © Ruijing Photo Beijing

We pursued a spatial expression that resonates with Snow Peak’s philosophy; minimally interfering with the site while allowing nature, memory, and craftsmanship to coexist.

– Yoshihiko Seki

Snow Peak Cafe Photographs

Context and Conceptual Foundations

The project’s urban context is rooted in the unique typology of Suzhou’s historical gardens and post-industrial redevelopment. The red brick warehouse complex, now repurposed within the MATRO Luxury Centre, is directly adjacent to one of China’s most iconic classical landscapes. This proximity called for an architectural response sensitive to cultural memory and urban rhythm.

Rather than imposing a new aesthetic language, the design embraces the site’s layered history. Seki’s approach avoids overt symbolism or radical formal transformation. Instead, it draws from Snow Peak’s philosophy of coexistence with nature to craft a space that privileges continuity and quiet adaptation. Minimal intervention becomes an operative principle rather than an aesthetic stance, allowing the architecture to resonate with its context rather than overpower it.

Spatial Organization and Circulation

The spatial configuration reflects a clear hierarchy and compositional restraint. On the ground floor, a centrally positioned multifunctional bar serves as the space’s structural and visual anchor. This element consolidates multiple functions, coffee preparation, brand display, and point of sale, within a compact volume, creating programmatic clarity and spatial coherence.

Constructed from horizontally layered timber strips, the bar references the tectonic language of the red brick walls while introducing a refined contrast through a steel countertop. This juxtaposition continues as micro-cement steps emerge from the bar’s base, suggesting a unified surface rather than discrete elements. These transitions, horizontal to vertical, heavy to light, form an embedded circulation logic that invites intuitive movement through the space.

The micro-cement staircase acts as a connective element and a compositional device. Rather than appearing as a structural afterthought, it emerges organically from the ground plane, extending toward the upper level in a subtle and deliberate gesture. The stairs’ understated articulation avoids theatricality, instead functioning as an extension of the spatial field. It also serves a secondary role as a display platform, integrating exhibition with movement.

The upper floor adopts a more contemplative atmosphere. Here, reclaimed red bricks are repurposed into stepped seating platforms, offering informal gathering zones that blend spatial definition with flexibility. Timber slats subtly mark boundaries without imposing enclosure, reinforcing a sense of openness and collective orientation. The decision to paint existing timber beams white further softens the interior, balancing the textural weight of brick with a lighter atmospheric tone.

Material Strategy and Tectonic Expression

The material composition is integral to the project’s identity, operating as a carrier of memory and a medium of transformation. Red brick, steel, timber, and micro-cement are deployed as decorative contrasts and tectonic counterpoints. Each material responds to specific structural or experiential demands while remaining in dialogue with the overall composition.

The tactile presence of the red brick, left largely unaltered, serves as an anchor of permanence, grounding the space in its historical lineage. In contrast, the steel surfaces introduce a degree of precision and reflectivity, reinforcing a crafted sensibility. The timber elements offer warmth and rhythm, subtly mediating between hard and soft, old and new.

The project engages materiality through detail and proportion rather than relying on surface treatment or ornamentation. For instance, the alignment of the timber strips in the bar echoes the logic of brick stacking, creating a rhythm that visually links new interventions to the original structure. Similarly, the micro-cement surfaces, used in stair and display elements, create continuous planes that blur the distinction between object and architecture.

Architectural Significance and Reflections

Snow Peak Cafe offers a model for thoughtful adaptive reuse in contexts where cultural and material memory are significant. The design resists the temptation to overwrite history with novelty, instead cultivating a contemporary and site-attuned architectural language. Its success lies not in spectacle, but in the subtle recalibration of space through proportion, texture, and program.

By avoiding overt formal gestures, the project opens space for slower, more interpretive readings. It demonstrates how architecture can construct atmospheres of attentiveness and care without relying on excessive complexity. The minimalism here is not aesthetic but ethical, rooted in an economy of means that prioritizes presence over performance.

Within the broader discourse of contemporary Chinese architecture, Snow Peak Cafe contributes to the ongoing conversation around heritage, memory, and urban transformation. It illustrates how post-industrial structures can be reimagined without erasure, and how brands rooted in outdoor culture can occupy urban environments without abandoning their core values.

Snow Peak Cafe Plans

Snow Peak Cafe Image Gallery

About KiKi ARCHi

KiKi ARCHi is a Tokyo and Beijing-based architecture studio known for its context-sensitive and human-centered design approach. The firm, led by Yoshihiko Seki, explores the intersection of everyday life, nature, and craftsmanship through minimalist yet expressive spatial strategies. Their work often emphasizes adaptive reuse, material clarity, and a thoughtful integration of cultural and environmental contexts.

Credits and Additional Notes

1. Project Director: Yoshihiko Seki
2. Design Team: Saika Akiyoshi, Takahito Yagyuda
3. Client: Snow Peak