LXB-Shanghai Diner / LUKSTUDIO

Interiors Designers: LUKSTUDIO
Location: 450 Ruijin 2nd Rd, Da Pu Qiao, Lu Wan District, Shanghai, China
Lead Designer: Christina Luk
Design Team: Jinhong Cai, Melody Shen, Leo Wang, Yiren Ding, Sarah Wang
General Contractor: Shanghai Mai Chang Construction Project Co., Ltd.
Client: Longxiaobao
Area: 152.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Dirk Weiblen

Text description provided by the architects. After realizing a series of the Noodle Rack concept for Longxiaobao, a casual noodle diner, Lukstudio explores the lightness of the rack design at their first Shanghai location. Given the 150-sqm interior corner in the Sun Moon Light Center, Lukstudio opens up the facade and showcases the dining atmosphere in a translucent latticed structure.

Following the original fan-shaped plan, a curvilinear wooden core encases all service areas, allowing the white trapezoidal wireframe to stand out. Composed of 8mm x 8mm steel bars, the fine yet strong grid integrates partition, ceiling, seating and shelving, simultaneously blurring boundaries between diners and passers-by.

Walking along the coherent storefront and seeing through the restaurant, in-line customers are encouraged to imagine themselves in place of the diners between the white lines. The soft barrier has shaped various spaces to suit different diners; may they be loners who enjoy their solitude, friends or strangers who connect over food.