Originated from Chongqing, Chubby Girl's Noodle Shop's Beijing branch is an interior overhaul with a street dining atmosphere true to the owners’ and the food’s cultural origin. Project Description: Originally established in Chongqing, Chubby Girl’s Noodles Shop has been known for serving authentic spicy noodles, a quintessential dish from the region, with outstanding flavours and honest services. Since its Beijing branch opened in 2015, it became “go-to” shop for the symbolic regional dish in the capital. The overhaul OFFICE AIO designed changes the shop from one that merely sell delicious noodles, to an atmosphere that could only be found appropriate enjoying Chongqing noodles in. OFFICE AIO drew inspirations from works of photographers Tim Franco, Nadav Kander, and Mark Horn, which documented life against the multilayered verticality of the city during its rapid urbanisation. The space includes a section at the back as kitchen and the remaining as dining area. “Windows” were punctured through internal walls between the two areas to create a systematic serving flow for the busy restaurant. Despite a footprint twice as the original, the kitchen is tripled and number of dining seats remain the same, providing kitchen staff and visitor with ample spaces and comfortable experiences. With stylised interchangeable menu tablets frame an engaging entrance that draws crowds in so that queuing no longer happens outdoor in extreme weather times. The shop is designed with platforms in terrazzo to build up undulating heights across the space. Built-in tables are cast in-situ with the same mix. Not only does the material serve aesthetic needs, it also allows ease of maintenance. Neon lights outlines of the exaggerated “exposed concrete structure”, rendering a candid sense of urban jungle and exuberant nightlife. Tables of different lengths scattered across the space with folding stools, giving patrons the familiar sense of street dining along the sloped cityscape distinctive to Chongqing. "Throughout the design process, we restrain from the mindset of "designing a restaurant". Instead, we stretch our minds beyond food, extending our thinking to understand the culture and the city that breeds it. "