Dongshang is a contemporary Japanese restaurant and bar with a wide selection of sake and Japanese whisky located in Beijing, composed of bamboo in many different forms and sizes. The project vision was to create a unique dining experience by intertwining Japanese traditional aesthetics with elements of Chinese culture. The symbolic material with strong connections to both Chinese and Japanese arts and crafts covers the walls and ceilings to create an intimate environment. The history of planting and using bamboo in these two countries can be traced back to ancient times, and the traditional material symbolizes the anti-urban philosophy in Chinese classic story, the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.
The natural quality of bamboo offers guests a calming experience and brings people together in the same as the old narrative. Guests enter through an intermediate space to maintain a distance between a common hallway and an intimate dining area, which features bamboo strips fixed with brass nails on the walls and a succession of refined bamboo arches on the ceiling. The entrance corridor features lights which passes through the bamboo strips at the ceiling and illuminates the walls like sunshine filtering through tree leaves.
The main dining features a canopy made of bamboo sticks suspended over the tables to create a sense of intimacy. Illuminated liquor bottles are displayed on 3mm thick plate shelves made of black steel at a backbar featuring vertical bamboo louvers. The private rooms characterized by a combination of brass and wood are soundproof and equipped with acoustic boards to accommodate karaoke without disrupting the ambience of the main dining. Dongshang invites guests on a story of traditional aesthetics and crafting techniques of the two countries through the contemporary reinterpretation of bamboo.
The natural material lined space evokes the feeling of dining within a bamboo grove, and intimately links China and Japan. Credits: - Imafuku Architects - Principal Architect - Yuichiro Imafuku