When Design Meets Food: A Community Greengrocer’s Decade of Renewal in Beijing | Food Talk Vol. 20

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On the bustling Fenghuanghui commercial street along Beijing’s East Third Ring Road, among countless trendy restaurants and cafés, there is a greengrocer called “Jishi”. If you have ever passed by, you might have been drawn in by its rustic shopfront and displays.

In this episode, we take you deep into the story of this remarkable community greengrocer.

Jishi is no ordinary community supermarket—it is the offline community greengrocer of the Beijing Organic Farmers Market, sourcing fresh, organic produce from ecological smallholders in the areas surrounding Beijing. Here, you can find out which farm grew that Napa cabbage, or which farming friend grew the corn behind that bowl of popcorn—every vegetable and every grain of rice, truly traceable all the way back to its source.

Last year, “Jishi” celebrated its tenth anniversary. For various reasons, it relocated to a new address on the same commercial street and underwent its third renovation, upgrading to version 3.0. In this episode, we invite Xiaoyun Sheng, head of the Beijing Organic Farmers Market, and Kang Zhen, the designer behind Jishi’s new store, to join Food Talk host Hao Xiaozhu in exploring the decade this small, ecologically-minded shop has spent amid the consumer atmosphere of Beijing’s CBD commercial district.

Guests/of/This/Episode

Xiaoyun Sheng

Former journalist and amateur farmer, has been selling produce at the Beijing Organic Farmers Market for ten years.

 

 

 

 

Kang Zhen

Principal Designer at Beijing Fencun Design Co., Ltd. He graduated from Tianjin University and the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et de Paysage de Lille, earning a Master’s degree in Architecture and the French State Architect qualification. During the pandemic, he served as the designer for Jishi 3.0 of the Beijing Organic Farmers Market, an experience that transformed his architectural philosophy and career direction. He has since been actively exploring and practising how spatial design can rebuild harmonious, healthy relationships between people, communities, cities, and nature. He is currently the head of the Friends of Nature Wetland Guardian Group and the deputy head of the Friends of Nature Gaia Parent–Child Group 4 (Preparatory Group).

 

 

Host/of/This/Episode

Hao Xiaozhu

Non-resident host of Food Talk, who occasionally drops by to lend a hand at Jishi.

 

 

 

 

Time/line

01:15 What exactly is “Jishi” with all those qualifiers piled up in front of its name? It is the community greengrocer of the Beijing Organic Farmers Market, and also a space tucked into the premium commercial street around Sanyuanqiao along Beijing’s East Third Ring Road. 02:46 Jishi’s third renovation: does a greengrocer really need to be well designed? What prompted designer Kang Zhen to take on the role of designing Jishi’s new store?

04:51 “Market” as the antithesis of “supermarket”—in Europe, it is an important vehicle for a way of life. In China, “going to the market” once fell out of fashion; do our lives still need it?

08:32 Is it really necessary to renovate a community greengrocer that has been through so many ups and downs?

11:22 Is design simply about looking good? The designer says the best design should be led by genuine needs and genuine relationships.

17:06 Dismantling every brick and tile from the old shop for reuse—is that penny-pinching or deliberate intention? Or both?

23:09 Not just selling produce, but offering a “Smallholder’s Table” where everyone can tuck into Alsatian tarte flambée straight from the source: the “farm-to-table” food movement has swept the world, and Jishi has made many attempts for its farming friends, too—so why is it still so difficult in China?

27:41 Less overtly “designerly”, the unfinished space here brims with possibilities.

34:52 Not just a “shop”—a community is actually a relationship of equality and co-building, not merely “I serve you”.

39:05 A community greengrocer doesn’t make much money selling vegetables day in, day out—how much is there really to spend on design and renovation? How have budget constraints troubled Jishi and its designer? How do you strike a balance between the consumer atmosphere of Beijing’s CBD commercial district and ecological ideals?

After its third renovation, Jishi 3.0 reopened.
The new “Jishi” now features a Smallholder’s Table.
Rice, noodles, grains and beans can all be bought loose.
Fresh seasonal tomatoes.
“Even when there’s no market, the vegetables our ecological farming friends grow still keep on growing!” So they bring them to Jishi instead.
Alsatian tarte flambée in all sorts of flavours (toppings? toppings!), all brought together with smallholder produce.
In Kang Zhen’s design, “beams” and “columns” form the framework of Jishi 3.0.
The various functional zones designed by Kang Zhen for Jishi 3.0.
The big move from Jishi 2.0 to 3.0—colleagues, farming friends and volunteers all came to help.
Once again from the ground up, this community greengrocer in Beijing’s bustling commercial district welcomes its ten-year rebirth.

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Images

Jishi, Foodthink

Production Team for This Episode

Planning: Ze’en

Production: Xiao Jing

Cover: Wan Lin

Music: Banong

Editing: Ze’en

Layout: Xiao Shu

Contact email

xiaojing@foodthink.cn

Published by Foodthink