Coffee Projects

Starbucks Chengdu Global Flagship

  • Location: Chengdu, China

  • Area: 570sq.m.

  • Project Year: 2014

  • Project Description: ASIG Design was commissioned to lead the design of Starbucks' third global flagship in China. Located at Taikoo Li in Chengdu, the historic context blending with the new urban fabric of the site significantly influenced the concept by alluring the brand to nod to traditional Sichuan customs while still appealing to a fashionable young customer. Situated at a prime location of this incredibly successful new retail development, the simplicity of the open, simple facade pulls in the approaching customers with the warm glow of the interior. Large 3-meter-wide fold-up glass windows truly complete the connection between in and out. The three-story space is knitted together by an open stair piercing through the center of the floor plate, creating a variety of interesting seating options. Main materials used are terra-cotta and wood, both traditionally used in Sichuan province as building materials, warming the space through the ceilings, fixtures, and floors. 


Starbucks Parc Central

  • Location: Guangzhou, China

  • Area: 450sq.m.

  • Project Year: 2017

  • Project Description: 

  • Project links: project overview


Starbucks (multiple locations)

  • As a preferred vendor, we've designed and drafted over 150 Starbucks stores to date.

  • Project links: project overview


Starbucks CLP

  • Location: Changsha, China

  • Area: 250sq.m.

  • Project Year: 2023

  • Project Description: Located in the heart of Changsha, this 250-square-meter Starbucks store reinterprets the brand’s signature warmth through the lens of the city’s natural beauty. The project was designed to transform a challenging shell—half solid wall, half glazing—into a harmonious space that balances street visibility with an intimate café experience. The result is a refined yet welcoming environment that connects Starbucks’ global identity with Changsha’s serene landscape character. The design concept draws inspiration from the soft natural tones and layered textures found in Hunan’s scenery. This was distilled into a restrained palette of light woods, warm browns, and clean white surfaces, creating a calm, modern rhythm throughout. The space is defined by contrast—solid and transparent, warm and cool, intimate and open—woven together through precise geometric alignment and material cohesion. At the heart of the space, a suspended white rectangular ceiling plane defines the main seating area. Above it, a recessed, darker brown ceiling and an integrated rectangular light box accentuate depth and directionality, subtly guiding the eye through the café. The back bar features light-toned finishes with delicate recessed joints, providing a visual counterpoint to the darker wall surfaces. A dramatic floor-to-ceiling art wall anchors the main solid wall, serving as the first focal vignette for guests entering the space. Surrounding this feature, darker brown slatted panels add texture and balance, while a small entrance nook with art and high tables invites passersby to step inside, enhancing street presence and engagement. By combining warmth, minimalism, and precise detailing, the Starbucks Changsha store achieves a refined modernity rooted in local character—an environment that feels both globally familiar and distinctly of its place.

  • Project links: 



Lanna Coffee Yuyuan

  • Location: Shanghai, China

  • Area: 25sq.m.

  • Project Year: 2014

  • Project Description: Lanna Coffee’s first retail store spawned from its successful wholesale business, where it hoped to provide its homegrown Chinese coffee to a wider customer base in Shanghai. The core concept behind Lanna’s brand and retail store is ‘farm to cup’, which emphasizes freshness in local products at a time when most Chinese coffee outlets are importing coffee beans from other countries.  Designed as a progression from a natural landscape in the outside space to a refined creation of a cup of coffee at the interior, material choice was of utmost importance. Natural, local stone and reclaimed wood on the exterior mimics that of mountainous Yunnan province, from where Lanna sources their coffee beans. Polished copper, oil-stained teak wood, and a refined menu board with Lanna’s signature Columbia blue create a sense of refined coffee production.  


Lanna Coffee Donghai

  • Location: Shanghai, China

  • Area: 100sq.m.

  • Project Year: 2016

  • Project Description: 

  • Project links: project overview