This small cafe, tucked into the back facade of a mall and hotel tower on East Nanjing road, is a world away from Shanghai’s busiest pedestrian shopping street. The project occupies a tiny space literally carved out between the mall’s security, electrical and mechanical rooms. Sited on its own with only a limited connection to the mall, the cafe offers a hidden and much needed moment of calm for local commuters and surprised tourists alike. To make up for its limited interior, the cafe is designed with the maximum length of bench seating possible, claiming adjacent common spaces and spilling out into a newly created exterior terrace. The floating bench follow the contours of the existing back of house spaces, skirting odd corners, manhole covers and concealed doors, unifying a series of disjunct spaces.