Amico BJ is a fine-dining restaurant that serves Italian-Japanese fusion cuisine. In 2021, it moved to a new location in Sanlitun Beijing. The new space, designed by ArchUnits Studio, provides customers with a distinctive and out-of-the-ordinary dining experience.
The restaurant is located on the ground floor of an office tower, and has an atypical L-shape. The architects arranged the dining area in one wing of the L-shape with street view and natural light, and the back kitchen in the other wing of the L-shape, deeper in the space. The open bar, where the chef communicates with customers, is a feature of the restaurant and is positioned at the corner of the L-shape, allowing easy access to the back on one side, and allowing the chef to look after all the diners on the other.
The architect adopts the crossover concept, endowing the restaurant with an art museum-like lighting and ambience, presenting the food as a piece of art, in order to represent the creativity and refinement of fine-dining cuisine. Therefore, the design is not overly ornamental but rather emphasizes the use of "light" to create a spatial ambience and highlight the food with rustic and raw tonalities.
The continuous vaulted ceiling covers the dining area. Its form is closely integrated with the lighting system, and becomes a unique lighting and spatial prototype for the restaurant. The minimal tracks incorporate the lighting solution: the linear up-light strip faintly illuminates the middle of the arch to provide a soft light environment; the down-track spotlight may flexibly modify the position and angle, focused on illuminating the dining table and food. These continuous vaults are also extended outside to become the entrance canopy, extending the space and becoming an iconic symbol of the restaurant.