CONCEPT

Tasked with revamping the very historic site at South 8th Street and Market Street in Philadelphia, CUBIQUE seeks to inject a new vitality into the East Market Corridor - to bring about a new air of modern sophistication as a respite from the ancient reverence of this historic site. This approach emulates the reconstruction efforts adopted by other similar historic neighborhoods surrounding the East Market Corridor, most notably the Fashion District, allowing a synergy of growth all around the city - to pay respect to the past while reforging this legendary cultural landmark of Philadelphia for a new tomorrow.

Design process & background justifications

CUBIQUE is a cultural wellness center located in the bussing streets of the East Market Corridor, a place filled with local cultural significance and historic memories. CUBIQUE aims to gradually become the heart of attraction for the local community, fostering local industries and provide a beautiful site of communal experience. Our first and foremost mission was to decide upon a suitable and appropriate design approach towards this project. And where better to draw inspirations for such community-oriented project than the community itself?

Philadelphia is a very well-organized city, and its urban planning exemplifies incredible fengshui - clean gridline pattern intersected by notable arterial streets like Broad Street and Market Street. Our overarching design approach and space planning emulates this setup, allowing us to easily zone out different areas with strong pronounced boundaries and clean perimeters without isolating each sector into their own separate worlds. Our space plan also features major vistas leading into each sector respectively, acting as buffer zones while enhancing the immersive ambience of the spaces.

Per the programming requirement, our building mandates a dine-in restaurant in the first floor. Ultimately we settled upon a French seafood cuisine. Philadelphia’s early history revolves heavily around its maritime fishing industry along the Schuylkill River, we wanted to honor this tradition by featuring a seafood restaurant as a major attraction of this establishment. One might ask, however: “Why French though?”. Simple. Because French cuisine has amazing fish. And its high fashion elegance is highly in tandem with the stylistic elements we wished to introduce.

The upper-level wellness center

The Wellness Center is a crucial character within this establishment, mainly targeting psychological disabilities and promoting traditional therapies such as yoga, herbal, and acupuncture practices. In regards to a repeating motif, we decided to not continue the gridline pattern so heavily used in the lower floor, but instead take up the bamboo. Bamboos are both stern and flexible, it represents life, strength, and tenacity. Furthermore, bamboos are a symbol of nature and biophilic design - a perfect meld of aesthetic, function, and symbol.

When it comes to health and wellness design concerns, we embraced the WELL Building standards as guidelines to our design approach for this upper level space. Overhead vistas criss-crossing to encourage movement and exercise around the floor, maximizing interior exposure to sunlight, especially by placing therapy rooms along the window zones. This juxtaposition of coverage and open-ceiling arrangement can reduce the daunting vastness of the upper level ceiling height without overcramming the interior - both being very detrimental to patients suffering from psychological disorders. In essence, our overall goal for this wellness center is to infuse hospitality design and biophilic design elements into something comfortable and safe, yet elegant and communal.