Yuangu dessert restaurant is located in the center of Beijing Chaoyang Joycity and is wrapped in Sanlian bookstore. Excellent location cannot avoid noisy crowds. The whole space is lack of natural lighting, which is hard for us to create high comfort environment for customers. The third is how to organize the flow of people in restaurant. Fourth, how to determine the design form and style. With these questions, we started to explore the unknowns and possibilities. That makes us fill with passion and expectation. Soon we arrange the first version of the plan according to the four points we mentioned before.

First of all, we create an introverted space to isolate the impact from people in bookstore and shopping mall and try to make the space quieter. The second is about the problem of natural lighting. The conventional solution is to build a simulated environment. However, I always doubt whether the customer experience can achieve the desired result (real situation), since the fake things violate our original intention. As a result, we began to think about this problem in a reverse way to render a mysterious atmosphere. We select the simple and pure materials, colors and lights. The other is to solve the flow of people. According to the evacuation requirements, two entrances (exits) need to be designed. Most commercial space are open, but we focus on providing customer with a quiet space. Therefore, we make it circuitous and divide the entire space into three parts. Combining the time of walking and extension of space, consumers could feel the depth and breadth of the space well even in an afternoon tea restaurant with only 160 square meters. Finally, it is about design style. Since Yuangu has it own brand and culture, yuan means beginning, gu means ancient.

Project Team
Shuang Zhao, Yanan Zheng, Dongjie Ma

Landscape Art Design
Xueling Hou（ZhiXianFang）

Photography
Shuang Zhao