This Italian restaurant by Chinese studio Neri & Hu is located in Shanghai’s oldest steel frame building.
The architects took advantage of this fact to strip back the interiors to expose the bare frame of the building in places whilst adding new elements that continued to evoke the rich historical context of the site by using raw industrial materials.
Original brickwork, Victorian ceilings and flaking plaster are combined with reclaimed timber, some of which was found onsite along with tubular steel frames and large bulbous lights reminiscent of street lighting.
“Constantly playing the new against the old, (our) design is a reflection of the complex identity of not only the historical Bund, but of Shanghai at large,” says the studio.
There are various spaces ranging from the main public dining area and pizza station to three private dining rooms to the centrally located bar defined by steel frames.
