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      Studio Nor scatters chunky stucco walls throughout Qinhuangdao hotpot restaurant

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      Thickset stucco walls hide unsightly structural panels inside this branch of restaurant chain Jin Sheng Long, which Studio Nor has designed in Qinhuangdao, China.

      Jin Sheng Long is a historic eatery known for serving hotpots and baodu – a traditional tripe dish. Since opening its first outpost in Beijing in the late 19th century, the restaurant has expanded into a chain with a number of outlets nationwide.
      Structural panels found throughout Jin Sheng Long are now enclosed by stucco wallsIts latest outpost in the port city of Qinhuangdao occupies a trio of former retail units on the ground floor of a residential tower.
      As a result, the interior is plagued by a number of awkwardly placed structural panels, which Chinese practice Studio Nor chose to retain and turn into key design features by encasing them within chunkier stucco-coated walls.
      The walls demarcate cosy dining nooksThese walls now form a labyrinth of cosy dining nooks that diners can explore, mimicking what Studio Nor describes as the “intricate and meandering” arrangement of stalls in a Chinese food market.

      Even the restaurant’s wooden tables and benches were chosen to resemble the furniture found in these markets.
      The restaurant’s tables and chairs resemble those found in a food market”We got inspiration from Jin Sheng Long’s history,” the studio said.
      “Back in the late Qing Dynasty, the founder of the restaurant started his business by setting up street stalls in Beijing’s famous old Dong’an Market – a then-popular destination full of dazzling attractions and bustling with life and activities.”
      The structural panels located in the centre of the room also serve a decorative function, with their enclosing walls set at unexpected angles and finished with curved niches for displaying bonsai trees, vases and other ornaments.

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      A bar is located towards the rear of Jin Sheng Long’s Qinhuangdao restaurant, in the only part of the room that is uninterrupted by structural panels.
      This area is anchored by an eight-metre-long counter, which is raised up on a stage-like brick plinth to highlight the theatricality of the drinks preparation process.
      Walls at the centre of the restaurant feature curved nichesStudio Nor expanded the restaurant’s windows to bring in more natural light and lined their inner frames with copper in a nod to the traditional cookware used to serve hotpot.
      Artificial lighting, on the other hand, was kept to a minimum in a bid to draw attention to the few illuminated areas that pop up throughout the interior.
      A brick plinth raises up the bar counterElsewhere in Qinhuangdao, BLUE Architecture Studio found another clever way of concealing unattractive structural elements when designing the Zolaism cafe.
      Here, the studio disguised the building’s support columns as huge craggy boulders.
      The photography is by Songkai Liu.
      Project credits:
      Architecture firm: Studio NORLead architects: Boyuan Jiang, Jingwen WangDesign team: Zhongyuan Liu, Wenxuan Xu, Yiming Lu, Shuo YangLighting consultant: Chloe ZhangConstruction team: QX GroupConstruction documents consultant: Shanghai C-Yuspace Design

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      GS Design repeats arch motifs throughout Sumei Skyline Coast hotel on Hainan Island

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      Cresting ocean waves served as a blueprint for the arched forms found on the interior and exterior of this beachside hotel that GS Design has created in Sanya, China.

      Located on the tropical island of Hainan, the Sumei Skyline Coast hotel was designed to reference its immediate environment.
      Arches feature on the interior and exterior of the Sumei Skyline Coast hotelThe building’s facade is punctuated by curved windows and balconies that suggest rolling waves, and is painted in a crisp shade of white to contrast the rich blues of the surrounding sea and sky.
      “We worked to craft the space into a timely and sophisticated art piece with a long lifespan of usage by adopting this classic colour,” explained Chinese architecture firm GS Design.
      Sculptural white furnishings decorate the lounge areaOn the ground floor, a series of upside-down arches runs along the wooden decking adjoining the infinity pool.

      More spots for swimming are found on the expansive roof terrace as well as in the first-floor lounge, where stepping stones lead over a curvy-edged indoor pool.
      The light-filled room is otherwise dressed with a couple of potted plants and an array of sculptural white armchairs with matching side tables.
      Stepping stones lead over the curvy-edged poolThe curved shapes seen on Sumei Skyline Coast’s exterior are echoed throughout its guest rooms, which are accessed via vaulted corridors.
      Some rooms have circular skylights or huge round headboards that project over the beds. Others feature arched recesses accommodating cushioned bench seats or vanities.

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      All bathrooms come complete with a standalone tub, positioned next to the windows to give guests optimum views of the island beyond.
      In keeping with the rest of the hotel, the guest rooms are finished completely in white with textural interest provided by tufted beige decorative cushions that are scattered over the soft furnishings.
      Arched or rounded forms are incorporated into the guest roomsGS Design was established in 2014 and is based in Shenzhen.
      The studio’s Sumei Skyline Coast project joins a number of hotels that have recently opened across China. Among them is BAN Villa, which was designed to look like a “floating village”, and Grotto Retreat Xiyaotou, a hotel modelled on ancient cave dwellings.
      The photography is by Ao Xiang.
      Project credits:
      Architecture, interiors and furnishing: GS DesignDesign directors: Liangchao Li, Yuanman HuangDesign team: Chao Li, Zigeng LuoFurnishing director: Yu Feng

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      Linehouse designs Shanghai restaurant informed by New Wave art movement

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      Design studio Linehouse has filled a restaurant in a Shanghai art museum with mirrors and arched details informed by eastern and western art and design.

      Located inside the UCCA Edge museum, the New Wave by Da Vittorio restaurant was named after the original UCCA museum’s opening exhibition The New Wave Art Movement, which also set the tone for its interiors.
      Arched shapes are used throughout the restaurantNew Wave, a 20th-century art movement in China, is renowned for its bold experimentation that brought Chinese art into the modern art world.
      “The concept for the restaurant comes from the collision of these opposing elements and the process of change,” said Shanghai-based Linehouse.
      New Wave by Da Vittorio is located inside Shanghai’s UCCA Edge museumTo enter the restaurant, guests pass through a narrow passage that leads from the public museum space into a more intimate dining area.

      The restaurant, which measures 620 square metres, also holds a bar, private dining rooms and an outdoor terrace.
      Mirrors create an illusion of more spaceA sequence of arches was added to the restaurant in reference to the use of colonnades in classical architecture, while matching arched mirrors create an illusion of spatial progression.
      New Wave by Da Vittorio also features a ceiling installation formed by arches designed in a more eastern style.
      Hanging fabric was cut into curved shapes to match the arches in the interiorThe installation consists of hanging fins made from a Japanese triaxle fabric with a woven texture, which has been cut into vaulted shapes to create a softness that evokes floating clouds.
      The sheets of fabric are placed in a repetitive order with a pattern that only emerges once you see through one sheet to the next. The studio hoped this would evoke the contradiction between order and chaos.

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      “Throughout the restaurant, we seek contradiction in materiality to create qualities of soft and hard, rough to smooth, order to unordered and solid to transparent,” Linehouse co-founder and lead designer Alex Mok told Dezeen.
      The studio used stone for the main bar counter, which it sculpted into a curved, fluid shape to further explore the juxtaposition between soft and hard surfaces.
      Linehouse deliberately chose a stone with a smaller repetitive pattern to create a continuous piece.
      A stone bar is decorated with mirrorsThe bar area also has a floor patterned with different kinds of stone while in the private dining rooms, precision-machined stainless steel and curved lacquered timber were paired to create another form of contradiction.
      “Materials are manipulated as a catalyst for creating disorder, dissipation, fragmentation and surprise,” Mok said.
      Different types of stone create a polka-dot pattern on the floorLinehouse also recently finished a space-theme cafe for Australian chain Black Star Pastry’s first Chinese outpost.
      The studio was named emerging interior designer of the year at the 2021 Dezeen Awards.
      The photography is by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.
      Project credits:
      Architect: LinehouseDesign lead: Alex Mok, Briar HicklingDesign team: Jingru Tong, Inez Low, Aiwen Shao, Leah Lin, Jiabao Guo, Cherngyu Chen
      Dezeen is on WeChat!
      Click here to read the Chinese version of this article on Dezeen’s official WeChat account, where we publish daily architecture and design news and projects in Simplified Chinese.

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      Norm Architects conceives Xiamen's Basao tea parlour as an oasis of calm

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      Danish practice Norm Architects has created an understated interior for the Basao teahouse in Xiamen that was designed to offer a “clear antidote” to the hustle and bustle of the Chinese port city.

      Basao takes its name from Baisao, a Japanese monk who lived during the Edo period and spent the latter part of his life wandering around Kyoto and selling tea.
      The Basao tea lounge is arranged around a Chinese stone counterHis Zen Buddhist writings were a key reference point for Norm Architects in the design for the “tea lounge”, which is meant to evoke a sense of tranquillity.
      “With room for quiet contemplation, the space is a clear antidote to our fast-paced on-the-go culture, instead immersing its visitors in the calming sounds of tea being prepared, poured and enjoyed,” the studio said.
      Seating around the counter provides views of the brewing processAt the heart of the store is a chunky counter crafted from speckled Chinese stone that is positioned beneath a coffered oak ceiling.

      Here, customers can order drinks and observe them being prepared from a couple of high stools.
      A wider variety of seating is assembled on one side of the room, incorporating different tactilities and shapes from suede poufs to wooden benches and a long banquette upholstered in chestnut-brown leather.
      More seating lies at the room’s periphery”Carefully considering the sense of touch, the experience of the space becomes an interplay of textures and temperatures in combination with contrasting polished and raw surfaces,” Norm Architects explained.
      To the other side of the lounge is a retail space, where Basao merchandise is showcased on black steel shelves.

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      More products can be presented on slim metal ledges and pivoting displays built into the tea parlour’s oak-panelled walls.
      Oakwood also covers the building’s facade, which was modified so that its walls are sloped invitingly towards the entrance.
      Black steel shelves display Basao’s products in the retail spaceThe facade is punctuated by huge windows that can be pushed up concertina-style to let fresh air and natural light into the interior.
      Alternatively, customers have the option of sitting outdoors on the terrace, which is decorated with a number of leafy plants.
      A large window allows the tea parlour’s interior to be opened up to the outdoorsBasao is Norm Architects’ first project in China.
      The Copenhagen-based practise has recently completed a number of interiors in its hometown including Notabene, a shoe store with warm industrial interiors, and a bookstore that takes design cues from old-school libraries.
      The photography is by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

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