Dining between Lines

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. The dining experience is further enriched by hanging steel wires mimicking the hanging noodles, a tribute to the previous concept stores.