WU Club

Situated within a building in the CBD of Shantou, Guangdong Province, China, WU Club is a new restaurant and club which bears the mission of carrying forward Chaoshan cuisine as its signature. Composed of private dining rooms, a tea room, a cigar bar, a whisky bar and an audio/video room, it adopts a novel operation concept and provides a unique spatial environment. The design team conceived it as a kind of modern energy and applied an advanced design concept, aiming to create a tentative spatial state endowed with value and defined by what happens in it.

A DIVERSIFIED SPACE
As the elevator door opens, people are brought into another world. Walls adorned with metal and stainless steel, black stone slabs and the large smart glass door equipped with face recognition system, evoke people’s curiosity to explore the dark-hued space. Irregular structures constitute a sculpture-like space set at staggered heights generate a floating-visual effect within the space.

The cigar room is the first functional area, indistinctly revealed by a metal curtain, small yet exquisite, with a cool spatial character in a small scale, aiming to bring people closer together.

The whiskey bar connects the audio/video room and the outdoor terrace.  Reflective stainless steel is utilized to create a symmetric space. As a part of the whiskey bar, the outdoor terrace offers a perfect place to relax and embrace night breeze.

The tea room serve at the leisure time after a busy day. It has a simplistic spatial form. Black porous paint finish, smoked wood flooring, as well as blue light, result in a serene tea drinking and communication space.

While private dining rooms are characterized by irregular spatial form, which look like a void, full of surprises and uncertainties. Unique structures extend from the passageway to the inner area. The floating art installation on the top adds playfulness to the space and provides lighting for the dining table.

INTERACTION OF REALITY AND FUTURE
A creative and experimental approach to express paint is applied to present different hues and textures. Besides, the wooden floor and stone materials form a contrast. The solid and the soft, the cool and the warm, collide yet harmonize with each other. Moreover, elements such as humour, mystery and dream are incorporated into the space.

Polygonal planes, slanting structures and floating forms are brought into the space, which challenges established architectural values and releases imagination. Irregular geometric shapes break with the convention, and indicate an attitude of exploring undefined order and an experiment of achieving self-worth.

PROJECT DATA
Project Name
WU Club
Location
Shantou, Guangdong
Completion Date
July 2020
Gross Floor Area
600 metres square
Design Firm
AD ARCHITECTURE
Design Principal
Xie Peihe
Photographer
Ouyang Yun
Video
Flight Film