The site , MIXC Mall is not just the best luxury shopping complex in Shenzhen ( a Chinese city just an hour away from Hong Kong ) but also a trend-setter in Southern China region. Being engaged by the brand as the Interior architects for to design their first restaurant in this province, 4N has great responsibility in taken up a new vibrant approach to ensure this project will be the best in town, while embracing the spacious and cozy environment as the brand intended for their diners.
The site is a long rectangular box with lines of floor‐to-ceiling windows on the top level of the shopping mall. This ‘length’ of site creates a depth from which customer enters until it reaches the far end of the restaurant. The design team addressed the challenge into an advantage, designers cleverly divide the interiors into three chambers/zones to create elements of surprise throughout each area separately by the glass panels with metal frame to maintain the connectivity of space.
The three zones are nameable by The Pizza Kitchen (an open show kitchen functions as making of food as well as attraction point), The Bar (where bartender make cocktails and drinks from the industrial-look bar) and The Theater (where continuous movie projections are played onto the white brick wall), these are all interconnected by vivid orange air-‐ducts overhung. The ductwork, custom-engineered in a widened oval shape, in purpose to overpowering the structure of the space and stretching out from the extravaganza metal portal to the far end where the outdoor space is connected.
Table setting was meant to be casual, fun with variety, the combinations of round tables, rectangular table, communal table, booth seating, long bench seating and Europe-‐imported furniture all adds together to create the dining setting for customers. The designer teams worked along with American graffiti artist to create drama onto the walls, with western women faces being depicted with contemporary artistic stokes.
Al Fresco terrace area is furnished with strikingly visible Orange sunshade stand along at the open bar as well as the costumed outdoor furniture integrated carefully with light installations, it connects with the interior with a connecting bar, serving both inside and outside.
The tectonic qualities of bespoke furniture includes the mix of timber, black metal, stone and tiles, and white marble table . 4N twist the design by adding engraved Chinese Chessboard onto the marble top , these chessboard table are prominent feature in public parks throughout Chinese communities, which is the designers visions in bringing Chinese everyday life into the casual dining experience.
