Press Release
Bronze A' Design Award in Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design Goes to The Daci Monestary Teahouse Interior Design by Hongbin Shen and Lu Xia
The international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Hongbin Shen and Lu Xia for cultural heritage and culture industry design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 28, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that The Daci Monestary Teahouse Interior Design by Hongbin Shen and Lu Xia, designed for Luren Design, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design category. The result belongs to the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Bronze A' Design Award
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
Regarding The Daci Monestary Teahouse Interior Design
The Daci Monastery Teahouse is an interior design for a historic building in Chengdu. The teahouse covers about 500 square meters on two floors. The original wooden structure was reinforced and repaired, keeping the aged beams, pillars and carvings. Traditional doors, carved lattice windows and modular partitions divide the space into private rooms and a public lounge. Multi-link sliding folding windows fold to one side, so the enclosed rooms can open into semi-outdoor tea settings. Golden sandalwood and mortise and tenon joints are used without nails or glue.
About Hongbin Shen and Lu Xia
The design team is a comprehensive agency integrating interior space design, 3D architectural rendering and visualization services. It provides a full range of diversified services for multiple fields including real estate, commercial spaces, hotels, residences, cafes and restaurants. Its work is rooted in multi-dimensional innovative thinking about the market, local culture, products, commercial value and more. It also employs an international perspective and forward-thinking creativity to craft personalized, precise, and exclusive spatial designs for clients.
Award Record
With this recognition, Hongbin Shen and Lu Xia is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design Award
The A' Cultural Heritage Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good designs that preserve, protect, and promote cultural heritage. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to cultural heritage designers, culture industry professionals, cultural heritage specialists and museum designers from all countries. Entries typically include cultural heritage projects, cultural conversation, preservation and restoration and protection projects. Awarded cultural heritage designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/cultural-heritage
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/177109
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/177109
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!177109
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/374423
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- The Daci Monestary Teahouse Interior Design
- Function
- Interior Design
- Category
- Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Arts and Social Impact
- Colors
- Black, Peru, Dim Gray, Dark Salmon and Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Luren Design
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Hongbin Shen and Lu Xia
- Country
- China
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #177109
Credits
- Team
- Hongbin Shen
- Image Credits
- LUREN DESIGN
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- This teahouse incorporates the wisdom of Rules of Architecture Noted and innovatively adopts multi-link sliding track folding windows. This allows window panels to fold to one side, instantly turning the enclosed teahouse into a semi-open space. The teahouse retains traditional carved lattice windows, blending them with ancient architectural styles. It preserves the historic structure while introducing natural light, shadow and views.
- Inspiration
- Designers balanced the overall design between ancient architecture preservation and commercial value. They chose to reinforce and repair the original wooden structure, preserving the time-worn mottled beams, pillars and carvings, while adding traditional doors, lattice windows and partitions. This design creatively divides the teahouse into elegant private rooms facing Taikoo Li views and a public lounge area, adding multi-scene functionality to create a tranquil teahouse amid bustle.
- Research
- This teahouse stands as a practice and inspiration for the revitalization and utilization of historic buildings. Respecting the original architecture, it draws on ancient building essentials to repurpose spatial layouts for commercial use and revamp private rooms. It also pioneered multi-link sliding folding windows without harming the ancient structure, boosting interaction between people, environment and culture to immerse them in the merged beauty of the heritage and age-old zen tea culture.
- Challenge
- Designers drew on the spatial wisdom of Rules of Architecture Noted to innovate independent multi-link sliding folding windows. This allows the window sashes to fold to one side, enabling seamless interaction between indoor spaces and outdoor scenery while imparting strong appeal and expansibility. Using traditional carved window lattices, door panels and partitions, designers avoided damaging the ancient structure while letting tea drinkers enjoy both tea tasting and cultural immersion.
- Realization and Technology
- The teahouse carries on the essence of ancient architecture, using golden sandalwood for its texture and rot resistance. The sandalwood develops a unique beauty over time, reducing resource consumption from frequent material replacement. The wood incorporates anti-corrosion and anti-insect techniques, effectively lowering maintenance needs. It also uses modern mortise and tenon craftsmanship without nails or glue, fitting eco-concepts and fusing modern techniques with traditional aesthetics.
- Operation and Interaction
- The teahouse integrates traditional wisdom with modern tech, enabling seamless switching between enclosed spaces and semi-outdoor tea settings to form a breathable space. The teahouse retains the ancient architectural style in both layout and space. Through modular partitions, it enables free transformation of spatial forms—where areas are separated yet interconnected, and views shift with each step. Different private rooms are designed to suit the needs of various occasions.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project finished in May 2024 in Chengdu.
- Specifications
- The teahouse is located in Daci Monastery within Chengdu Taikoo Li, covering approximately 500 square meters and divided into two floors. The renovation of the teahouse relies on modern mortise and tenon craftsmanship without glue or nails.
- Keywords
- Respect for tradition; Commercial value conversion; Heritage of ancient architecture; Sliding track folding windows; Semi-outdoor tea table setting; Golden sandalwood; Flowing zen vibe; Zen tea culture; Teahouse private rooms; Sustainability
