Yuen Yeung tells the story of Hong Kong through the city’s coffee and tea houses. Both beverages have been with Hong Kong since the city’s founding. This is after all the city that invented Yuen Yeung, a beverage that blends tea and coffee. Coffee and Tea Houses form a critical network of social spaces in Hong Kong where the average urban resident is afforded a mere 2.8sqm of open space per person. While remembering that the coffee houses of 17th century London facilitated revolution and that those in 19th century Vienna stimulate artistic invention, we ask what role cafes and tea houses plan in Hong Kong today. Yuen Yeung; Coffee and Teahouses of Hong Kong examines twenty-five coffee shops and teahouses through an architectural lens. The spaces are sequenced from small to large.

The book categorizes the cafes by seven building types unique to the city. Whether housed in a village house, shophouse, or stacked factory, the architectural frame often underpin an interior logic and character. Original interviews and essays with cafe owners and designers discuss aspects of cafe design including material use, graphic design and collective memory.

The book is available online: https://rb.gy/vjyu3z