Accessories | Rongjie Design and Construction Engineering Co
Rongjie Design and Construction Engineering Co - LIAO LIAO Cafe at Luoyang Museum - Luoyang - China
| 2026-02-13 |     |
Les designers Zhijiang Shan et Fan Li ont inauguré le LIAO LIAO Cafe, un nouveau café de spécialité situé dans l’enceinte du musée de Luoyang, dans la province du Henan, en Chine. Ce projet transforme un site routier sous-exploité en un lieu de rencontre qui fait le lien entre l’importance culturelle du musée et le rituel quotidien du café.
A roofline drawn from the landscape
The building's most prominent feature is its continuous, wave-form roof — a sweeping steel canopy whose curves reference the silhouette of the Qinling and Funiu mountain ranges visible from the region. The undulating profile rises and dips along the length of the structure, creating varying interior heights that define distinct zones for seating, circulation, and the bar. From across the street, the roofline reads as a single fluid gesture set against the sky, signaling the cafe's presence without competing with the museum's monumental architecture nearby.
Materiality and contrast
The exterior pairs a mirror-finish stainless steel volume at one end with weathered Corten steel panels and dark-toned metal cladding along the main body. The mirror-clad box reflects the surrounding parkland and sky, dissolving the building's edge into its context, while the Corten surfaces introduce warmth and a sense of geological time that resonates with the museum's archaeological collections. A perforated concrete-block screen runs along the lower portion of the facade, filtering views between the interior and the covered terrace.
Structure as expression
Exposed steel columns branch upward at varied angles beneath the canopy, supporting the roof while evoking the trunks and limbs of the mature trees that populate the museum grounds. The structural members remain visible inside and out, lending the space an honest, workshop-like character. Overhead, the raw concrete soffit of the roof shell is left unfinished, its textured surface catching the light from linear track fixtures that run along the steel beams.
An interior shaped by daylight
Floor-to-ceiling glass walls wrap the seating areas, dissolving the boundary between the cafe and the surrounding landscape. A continuous skylight slot runs along the ridge of the roof, allowing daylight to wash down the stone-textured interior walls and shift in color from morning to dusk. At sunset, the narrow glass gap frames the sky like a vertical painting, creating a moment of pause for visitors seated below. The interior palette — dark stone flooring, leather-and-wood lounge chairs in green and caramel tones, and blackened steel fixtures — is deliberately restrained, letting the changing natural light serve as the primary decorative element.
The bar and social core
A long service bar occupies the center of the plan, its front face built from the same concrete block used on the exterior, creating material continuity between inside and out. The open-kitchen format allows guests to watch the preparation process, reinforcing the cafe's identity as a craft-focused establishment. Seating is arranged in a sequence of intimate clusters rather than unifor
Dialogue with context
Positioned directly beside the Luoyang Museum — one of China's major repositories of Bronze Age and Tang Dynasty artifacts — LIAO LIAO Cafe serves as a threshold space where the contemplative atmosphere of the museum meets the informality of daily life. The covered terrace, shaded by existing trees and furnished with wooden deck chairs, offers a decompression zone for museum visitors and neighborhood residents alike.
The project demonstrates that commercial hospitality architecture within a cultural precinct need not default to timidity or pastiche. By responding to the terrain, the climate, and the institution next door through form and material rather than stylistic imitation, Zhijiang and Fan have produced a building that earns its place beside one of China's most important museums.
About Rongjie Design (R&J Design Studio)
Rongjie Design & Construction Engineering Co, LTD (R&J Design Studio) is a multidisciplinary design practice based in China, working across architecture, interior design, and construction engineering. The firm focuses on commercial and cultural projects that respond to local context through material honesty and spatial clarity.
Rongjie Design's portfolio spans hospitality, retail, and public-facing environments, with particular attention to the relationship between built form and landscape.
Photo credit: Wei Zhao