Roast meats, known for their glossy red appearance and balanced sweet-savory flavor, are a staple of Cantonese cuisine and an integral part of Guangzhou’s everyday urban memory. Yet in common perception, roast meat shops are often small in scale, modest in environment, and oriented toward quick consumption, offering little space for staying or social interaction.

To challenge this perception, the Guangzhou-based brand Yunju collaborated with LUKSTUDIO on its first physical store, exploring a spatial typology beyond the conventional roast meat shop and Cantonese restaurant. Framed as a contemporary neighborhood canteen, the project draws from the idea of “visible everyday life,” reworking familiar materials and spatial strategies to create a more open and engaging environment.

The façade takes cues from stainless steel security grilles commonly found in nearby residential buildings. Combined with perforated, wave-like aluminum panels, it forms a layered interface that is both ordered and dynamic. By day, the silvery surface reflects trees and street life; by night, soft light diffuses through the perforations, mediating between the refined metal skin and the rougher existing context.

To address the narrow frontage and congestion during peak hours, the open kitchen is brought forward and rotated 45 degrees, creating a transitional zone at the entrance that separates dine-in and takeaway flows while maintaining visual openness. An existing fire hydrant is retained and reinterpreted as an entrance feature, adding a subtle layer of identity.

Inside, the strategy of reworking everyday materials continues. Original hollow brick walls are preserved, while terrazzo in varying shades of pink echoes the rich tones of roast meats. Pale green wall panels introduce a sense of freshness and balance. In an experimental move, spices commonly used in roast meat preparation are incorporated into the terrazzo mix, replacing part of the aggregate and embedding culinary memory into the material itself.

The open kitchen acts as the spatial core, linking the bar seating, preparation area, and drying room into a continuous sequence. Brushed stainless steel systems and kitchen equipment establish a clear industrial order, while mirrored surfaces reflect and layer cooking, dining, and street scenes, generating multiple visual relationships and enhancing spatial depth. Accents of orange handmade tiles add warmth to the otherwise rational setting.

Rather than relying on complex or expensive interventions, the project reinterprets familiar materials and components through careful adjustment and recombination. In doing so, it retains the vibrancy of everyday life while bringing greater clarity, order, and identity to the space.

Through a renewed reading of local culture and traditional dining typologies, LUKSTUDIO employs a restrained yet youthful design language to reshape the spatial experience, transforming this small “neighborhood canteen” into a contemporary dining space that is both open and refined.