DESIGNWILKES Sdn Bhd have reached the shortlist of the International Hotel & Property Awards 2014 with the Yan Yu Restaurant, located in W Hotel Guangzhou, China.
The design team set about to create a Chinese Restaurant that “eschews the cliché so often seen… large red lanterns, Chinese pottery, and delicate fretwork all set upon cracked ice patterned flooring. The only things that are Chinese in this restaurant are the staff, the cuisine, the crockery and the guests!”
What the team have created is a space with an Asian aesthetic. They looked to the most Asian of flowers, the Orchid to provide inspiration for the design. The orchid holds a greater sense of Asia in it grace & beauty. It is used in traditional Chinese herbal recipes, and in Guangzhou like many Asian cities; an Orchid garden provides a welcome respite from the stress of daily life.
Simultaneously the design team looked at the spectrum of colour. During the 16th century, English scientist Sir Isaac Newton discovered the refraction of white light into colours. When pure white light passes through a prism, it separates into the entire visible spectrum of colors. And when the multi-colored spectrum meets again a prism, it will recompose into white colour. The prism meeting point is the result of colours interacting. It is this factor that has contributed to the colour scheme. It is a meeting of colours as it is people. The scheme breaks into a variety of colours and returns back to a singular “white” colour. Guided with this wavelength, they started the restaurant with the palette of creamy white linen and flax hued velvet. It is devoid of colour. The floor is polished heavy cream stone. A sensual sinuous pewter based table is the central focus covered with masses of gorgeous white orchids. The surrounding walls are dressed with silver mirror and off-white hand rubbed timber, upholstered in linen with small silver beads attached, their sparkle like the prism point of transformation.
The room and the restaurant as a whole are simultaneously handsome with an elegant feminine streak. It is timeless in design, innovative, thought provoking and alive as it provides a backdrop for sumptuous cuisine.