MULY brand of coffee shops

The MULY coffee brand store sits on the ground floor of a high-end office tower in Pudong, Shanghai, designed by design director Shu Hongbo. With 8,000 coffee shops and counting, Shanghai is the most dense coffee city in the world, and the project aims to contribute to that cosmopolitan, inclusive coffee culture as a local social sample. Rather than sealing off the shop behind a closed curtain wall like a typical retail front, MULY opens itself to the street in an animated, welcoming gesture, producing an urban interface with thickness and warmth. The design follows a four-beat sequence of opening, continuing, turning and closing. The facade uses sandblasted stainless steel with a bold brand logo, giving a dynamic, modern feel that composes cleanly against the tower's glass curtain wall, while umbrellas and outdoor seating are arranged freely on the forecourt. At night, a continuous linear light strip set into the facade glows in warm orange-white, and the rectangular entrance reads from afar as a city postcard. Inside, the bar counter sits at the centre of the space and circulation as a minimalist geometric composition, acting simultaneously as a functional workstation and an art object. Bubble lights, water-ripple glass, terrazzo floors and warm loose furniture are joined by a coloured light strip above the open bar and an exposed coffee-making stage. A simple, compact coffee counter accommodates standard equipment so that baristas can work easily, and four-sided floor-to-ceiling windows pull the street inside. Overhead ripple light fixtures and hanging light spots soften the interior, and the whole space is meant as a social container rather than merely a cup of coffee. Completed in October 2021 at 420 square metres, MULY gives the city an indoor room and gives the street an outdoor living room, so that when the glass doors open, the shop, the pavement and the people passing through form an easy, everyday conversation.