TianTong 198 - The“White Box”

TianTong 198, located in Shanghai's North Bund, consists of high-end apartments, courtyard houses, and townhouses. The project reinterprets the site's historic Shanghai alley house typology for modern living. For the show apartment, Design333 collaborated with Tony Chi on a “white box”approach — to minimize wall coverings and materials, while maximizing the homeowner's value in areas that are considered as“living essentials”. In order to create unique value, we focused on custom designs throughout the apartment that distinguish it in the market. For example, we collaborated with Shanghai-based artisan Eric Morris to create exclusive door hardware. The resulting design fuses Chinese and Western elements, reflecting Shanghai's cultural heritage while embracing Western minimalism. The handles also integrate modern technologies like electronic locks and fingerprint access to meet contemporary Chinese family needs. This bespoke approach sets our client's project apart from competitors who rely on standard hardware solutions. The show apartment aims to demonstrate the value of the client's property in a novel way. While the market typically relies on abundant marble and luxurious finishes throughout, we adopted a restrained 'white box' approach. This required careful consideration of which spaces to leave intentionally minimal while still conveying a sense of value to the potential buyers. By examining contemporary Chinese lifestyles, we identified the spaces that considered to be“living essentials”: the foyer, bathroom, and kitchen. We concentrated our design emphasis on these areas, focusing on superior door hardware, plumbing fixtures, kitchen installations, and wood detailing. Each element was carefully selected for its material quality, craftsmanship, proportions, and functionality. In contrast, the primary living spaces -the living room, dining room, and master bedroom - were deliberately left as blank canvases. This approach allows future residents to envision and customize these spaces according to their preferences, eliminating the need for wasteful renovations. The flexible strategy creates a thoughtful balance between demonstrating quality in essential areas while providing flexibility in social spaces.