The original building of Siji Minfu Restaurant (Maliandao) was a warehouse which adopted the beamless floor structure. The 35 columns with gaps of 5.6 meters support the original building, and the single-story height reaches 5.8 meters. With the advantages of structured space, good ventilation, and sanitary conditions, the original building is featured with a huge four-corner cap and honeycomb roof. At the same time, the demand for improved floor efficiency of the new dining space has to be taken into consideration in the design.
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Silver Winner
International Interior Design Awards 2021
Siji Minfu Restaurant (Maliandao)
Restaurant Interior Built
Firm
IN.X
Designer
Wei Wu
Design Team
Wei Wu, Chenyang Liu, Qifeng Jia, Yan Li
Location
Beijing, China
Country
China
Photographer/Copyright
©IN.X
To preserve the precious super volume and large scale of the original building, the designer dismantled the interior space into two modules as negative space for each other, including an open area on the first floor and the F-shaped roundabout area on the second floor. Under the roundabout area, it is the closed functional space composed of duck stoves, kitchen, and private rooms.
Through the connection between the east and west stairs, the corridor makes the entire restaurant come into view. When the escalator with strong sculptural sense rises up, it acts as a functional part that constitutes the moving line, and it is also the visual focus of the space.
Up to the second-floor stage above the duck stove, the 360-degree open scene puts people in the grand and open “temple”, where the columns are tall and mottled, connected with new and old materials.
Space starts from the open waiting area, where the huge caisson structure hanging from the ceiling opens up the warm atmosphere exclusive to Siji Minfu through red color. The sculptural upside-down module gathers the diners and popularity. The mirror surface projects the central landscape to the roof, stretching the sight vertically. Here and now, a satisfying experience better than that of an outdoor garden can be achieved. In the restaurant, diners can regain the fun of getting along with water, and the hanging branches of persimmons recall the childhood memories of life in the courtyard.
Continuing the brand concept of Siji Minfu, the dense and fine-grained Forbidden City gold bricks and the gray-toned black bricks of Beijing residential buildings, together with the large-area reserved clear cement plain wall, form the space palette. In the almost grand scene, the solemn and silent space, the rough and gentle texture, the gurgling water, and the daily emotions are superimposed, and peace and grace coexist in the place.
The red bar constructs another scene: the 5.2-meter-high red facade extends upwards, curved into a surface, and connects with the building structure to form a nested module in a gray cement box. Waking up slowly, the ancient capital city was injected with surging vitality.
At dinner time, large-scale rendered blue lights overflow from the ceiling and part of the walls, like digital night skylight. Contemporary design techniques, traditional regional culture, and old architectural symbols merge into a dynamic timeline that interacts with everyone who enters the space.
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