Step Back in Time at The Blackstone Exchange

In Shanghai’s Blackstone Apartments — the historic 1920s building turned culture hub —The Blackstone Exchange is an art deco speakeasy designed by NÒNG STUDIO to evoke the building’s original grandeur. Studio founder Chasing Wang shares more about the design

Design Anthology: How did you first meet the client?

Chasing Wang: I met the clients, a couple, when we were students in New York — they were studying economics at Columbia, I was a visiting scholar at Parsons.

What was their brief to you for the project?

They wanted to open up a whisky and cocktail bar that reflected Blackstone Apartments’ history. The 1920s building, in the former French Concession, is one of Shanghai’s modern architectural classics — it was known as the ‘most luxurious apartment’ in the city. It was also sought after as the most popular social place for its famous and distinguished residents.

How did you approach the project — what design references or narrative did you try to incorporate into the space?

First and foremost, I wanted to create a special ambience that makes guests forget where they are and what era they’re in. 

We used lots of metal and handcrafted and natural materials to evoke the industrial age and also as a nod to the Art and Crafts movement.

The centrepiece is the circular whisky display cabinet, for which we repurposed an old bank vault door and added soft lighting to illuminate the bottles. We also used motifs like the abacus and old coins, which feature on the bar tables in a chessboard design.

Images / Chasing Wang