Joyce Wang Studio‘s latest restaurant in Hong Kong features burnt walls, a chandelier made from smoked washing-machine drums and a barbershop-themed den. The interior design practice was selected by restauranteur Yenn Wong and Chef Nate Green to create Rhoda, a neighbourhood restaurant in the Sai Ying Pun district of Hong Kong Island.

Designer Joyce Wang worked closely with Green to reflect his style of cooking in her interior. Through the use of burning and smoking, the designer pays homage to his method of charcoal grilling. She used shou sugi ban, or stained oak wood cladding, on the restaurant’s walls and columns. “Shou sugi ban is a traditional Japanese method of smoking wood and a way of preserving it for architecture,” Wang told Dezeen. “It is a material that encapsulates the spirt of Nate’s signature cooking style”.

As well as the cladding, the burnt-wood theme is continued through the branding of a rose emblem into the tables. An open kitchen and cocktail bar face each other at either end of the restaurant. On the ceiling in between, a cluster of reclaimed washing machine drums hangs as a chandelier. “We found that domestically, the washing machine drum is often used as a vessel for the barbecue,” Joyce said. “The washing machine drum is a subtle reference to this underlying narrative.”

Photography: Dennis Lo
Photography: Lit Ma

http://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/28/joyce-wang-studio-rhoda-restaurant-hong-kong-interior-design-burnt/