L’Aromate
The restaurant location is close to a small river surrounded by trees. It offers a calm retreat from Shanghai. The intention was to preserve this calm while at the same time reinvigorate it with modern design elements to form an unique visual identity.
To achieve this, RooMoo created a web pattern made by leather ribbons. As a comparison of plant roots spreading into the wall. It creates a sense of movement and dynamism within the space that catches the eyes. The two colors of leathers make a vibrant graphic pattern. We wanted this canvas to be like an “haute couture”, that would wrap around the space, like a tailor-made garment. Our pattern’s horizontal and vertical lines continue at different scale into our custom-made furniture, custom-made lightings and patterns on wood floor and mosaic.
An existing architecture and restaurant were at this place. The original appearance of the facade was not very conspicuous. To solve this problem, we added a second layer, constituted by vertical bronze color tubes, in front of the facade. It allows highlighting the facade day and night with lightings inlay on the ground. A flower pot between the original facade and the vertical tubes allows the plants to climb on it and to create a small hidden garden. Therefore, the façade was at a different scale similar to our indoor wall leather ribbon pattern.
At the origin, the rooftop was not accessible from the restaurant. Therefore, we decided to open up the rooftop slab and to continue the staircase to the roof. In this process, we enlarged the business area and offered a pleasant roof garden.
The second challenge was that the client wanted mix functions such as bar, dining, coffee lounge and parties (such as birthday or wedding).
Therefore, the furniture plan was studied to provide flexible arrangements. The first floor offers moveable furniture that can be combined or stay separated in order to adapt to different events such as parties or weddings. While the second floor offers a private lounge and a private dining room
Last but not least, the budget was limited. Our main creative idea was to focus more on craftsmanship than on expensive materials. Our leather ribbons are coming from recycling fake leather belt from a Shanghai factory.
Every leather belt has been installed manually on a metal structure.
The beautiful wood floor pattern and mosaic pattern on the ground floor and the second floor are also a continuity of this desire to show the craftmanship using customize pattern.