Two Fish

Two Fish is a contemporary teahouse and restaurant situated at the heart of a historic bowl-shaped depression carved into a old forest in Hefei. Once home to one of the city’s primary water distribution pump stations drawing fresh water from the legendary Nest Lake, the site has been carefully revived within a larger park setting.
To honour the location’s past, when water once pooled around the pump house, we have created a dry landscape that evokes its submerged history. At the centre of this narrative are two freshwater carps from Nest Lake, imagined as having become trapped within the bowl long ago. Their continuous swirling chase has been permanently carved into the surrounding terrain, frozen in time as dramatic earthen mounds and pathways. Nestled at the eye of this maelstrom sits the teahouse itself, its form gently squeezed and shaped by the implied force of the vortex.
Two Fish celebrates Anhui’s rich tea heritage while weaving together memory, landscape, and modern hospitality into a singular, poetic experience in Hefei.