With a successful organic hotpot restaurant already underway, the Taiwanese Yuen Foong Yu Group came to us with a new concept, one that would be a first for shanghai – an organic supermarket, deli, lounge and restaurant. Taking over a building previously occupied by a café chain, we were tasked with creating a unique spatial experience for the new concept – a high-end organic food store with deli on the first floor and a more intimate bar and restaurant on the second floor.
In addition to a complete interior renovation, the façade was to be drastically modified to showcase the brand. I was responsible for the complete façade re-design from concept proposals to construction documentation. The sense of transparency the client wanted to promote in a country full of food scandals was directly responsible for the evolution of the design. I also worked together with Studio 1-1 on the interior design for the second floor restaurant and lounge, The Green Kitchen.
We wanted something open and inviting, on both floors. For the first floor, local wet markets (street side vendors selling vegetables, fish, flowers etc) were the main inspiration. Located on a street of heavy foot traffic, we created a thickened zone elevated one step off the sidewalk. Still ‘outside’ this zone would offer a spillover for the market and deli.
Wanting the restaurant area to maintain a strong connection with the street and still be protected from harsh sunlight, I decided to use adjustable screens for the upper floor. Wanting to portray Green and Safe as a home-grown brand and moreover, a complete lifestyle brand (rather than dealing with food alone), I looked towards local cultural elements that could be tied in to the screen design. A variety of regional textiles provided the inspiration for the perforation patterns on the 4m-tall steel screens.
