Man Chao Hui is a top-notch restaurant that serves superior Chinese seafood hot pot, situated in an upscale commercial complex beside Shenzhen Bay. It provides upscale, luxury catering services to elites in the city. "Chinese style", "luxury", "exquisite", "private", "wealth", "auspicious", "lively" and "classy" are 8 key words given by the client for conceiving the restaurant. Inspired by seafood that the restaurant mainly serves, Various Associates imagined the space based on the concept "a wooden boat hidden in the sea", trying to lead diners to an immersive journey. 

Various Associates conceived each space by drawing on traditional Chinese gold, red, green and purple colors, which have different connotations. The mix of the four strong colors with different materials form a unique world of color. Occupying an area of merely 333 ㎡, the overall space needed to accommodate dining rooms, bar counter, booth area, pantry, bathrooms, etc. For the spatial layout, Various Associates focused on breaking the stereotype of conventional restaurant dining rooms and creating unique experiences. Through pondering and analyzing the circulation and materials, the design team created diverse experiences and weakened the cramped feeling in the space. 

Elements full of contrasting tension are matched in a playful manner, presenting strong characteristics and creating unique identity for each space. Traditional Oriental elements like pine bonsai, table lamps, screens and floral patterns are mixed and echo each other through mirrors, making diners feel like they're in a Chinese courtyard mansion. In contrast, the materials show a strong modern touch, colliding yet integrating with traditional materials. The designers drew on and reinterpreted Chinese elements such as "Malus Spectabilis" and "Koi Fish", to respond to the reunion and joyful atmosphere in traditional catering culture, and Oriental aesthetics as well. Moreover, the team utilized more than 50 materials and colors in the 300 ㎡ space. 

For this project, we needed to create a stronger and richer spatial atmosphere to satisfy the client's requirements. Beyond that, we hoped to demonstrate the exquisiteness of the space, playfulness in fixed settings, an ever-lasting aesthetic system, and diversified expressions in an Oriental context. 

The design needed to balance multiple materials and break the “monotonous circulation and experience”of conventional private dining rooms, and to organize an uncramped layout in the limited space and bring various unique spatial experiences. Besides, it had to create a series of spatial scenes relevant to seafood, produce a dining atmosphere suitable for fixed hot-pot round tables, and give each dining room a distinctive spatial character, so as to create an inclusive, free and eternal aesthetic in the space. All of the above posed great challenges to the design team.