This time I was asked to design a dining space for night barbecue in a commercial zone. Apart from the food itself, I also put memory point and visual effect as my focuses. Mr. Barbecue, the space owner, always sees the kitchen as his food lab. He loves studying “Midnight food recipes” that create special sensations to our taste buds. Compared to those food which present delicacy and clarity, what he pursues is the ambiguity of “Simplicity and straightforwardness”. In a way his viewpoint gave me the inspiration to bring out a totally new space experience.
I selected the compression tile as the main material for this building project. It is a material widely used to build factories. I used this material, as I surprisingly found, the changing structure of compression tiles contrasted and combined well with some small aspects of the old building. For example, I used the tiles to create the embedded entrance. If you enter the place passing by the entrance, you can easily notice the neon light forming a strong contrast with the old wall, which lays the main tone of the whole atmosphere.
In this design, I also paid attention to the interaction of different spaces. The original “L” ladder cut the space into two sections. To maintain the visual extensibility, I wrapped the horizontal ladder with the tile structure, which formed a vertical structure against the wall. Meanwhile I wrapped the main functional components like store room, checkout counter, vegetable ladder, and refrigerator etc., into the wall-side structure. Considering the limited space, I put a large glass on the wall in front of the ladder to visually extend the pathway. In the catering area, I laid the light tubes in arrays on the ceiling to minimize its plain effect. As the lights shine on the tile structure, it creates such a visual illusion that the structure seems to extend upward. This kind of space interaction creates the sense of ambiguity and new possibilities.
二楼尽可能减少了墙面的软装设计处理,用钢管和软帘作为包厢隔墙,用灯光与不同材质的融合来表达。
Different from the first floor, less wall decorations were used on the second floor. I relied on steel pipes and soft curtains as partition walls for separated rooms, trying to deliver the sensation of the whole atmosphere by the melting of light and different materials.
Just like in a state of being softly drunk, the limit and condition of the space are not clearly presented on this floor. In a process of magnifying the roughness, the space presents itself mainly by its color, texture and light. And this explains part of my design concepts, leaving the decoration, the space speaks for itself with its atmosphere.