Ran Guo Japanese Hotpot Restaurant

Freezing winter constantly reminds people how thrilling it is when spring comes with dancing petals in the sky. In Japan, hanami is an annual event for reunion, where people sit down and enjoy delicious food with their family and friend under the blooming cherry tree. Sited at the heart of Chaoyang district Beijing, this fine dining restaurant of Japanese hotpot was designed based on this idea and hope for offering a hanami-like ambience. Different with the seriousness or solemnity in most of the fine dining places, Ran Guo aimed to be relatively casual and relaxing, which caused by the popularization of hanami. Countless wood carvings on façade of the private room visualized the shape of wind. Embedded inside façade, the lighting system illuminated the shape of cherry petal, depicting a scenery of floating petals.
Speaking of the private room, the open kitchen, bar counter as well as other seats were scattered around the private rooms. Additionally, in order to take advantage of the 8-meter-high ceiling, it was vertically divided into 2 boxes, the one below is the private room while another one hid the air condition and ventilation appliance for common area and private room. At the same time, plug was installed at a lower spot.
Those box-like existences that are compact and undulating seem to bring pressure when seen in distance though, by shrinking the scale of other elements in this space, an intimacy reveals when stepping inside, just like wandering through alleys in Japan.
Along with the sunset, sunlight reflecting on the glass façade disappeared, giving a chance for the internal to show off its beautiful appearance in the dusk. It is hard to neglect it as those wood carvings are sparkling.
Interspace can be found among those compactly laid boxes when walking, bringing more interesting visual experience. Besides, within the interspace, a micro garden was built to be the entrance of the private room, meanwhile, by visually overlapping and sheltering, to save the privacy due to the location of the entrance. Walking through a cluster of ‘boxes’, horizon expanded in a second, following with the open kitchen, bar counter and seats. The wide view positively brought chief a vigorous atmosphere.
Upon every private room, the application of six different kinds of wood aimed to simulate the pattern of moving wind. Ceiling of every private room was made up of glass, not only promising the privacy and a clear view of the wood carving but also amusing patrons by bringing them immersive.
project title: Ran Guo Japanese Hotpot Restaurant
Architecture Firm: okamoto deguchi design
Architect: Okamoto Keizo\ Deguchi Tsutomu\Wu Zhuozhaoyi \ Cao Bo \ Zhang Yimeng
Project Location: Floor 1, Qihao, #8 Xinyuan south road, Chaoyang District, Beijing.
Completion Year: 2019
Gross Built Area: 226m2
Main Material: Texture Painting-Modern Master／Japanese Paperfilm-Warlon ／ Light fixture – VF
Lighting Design: Ljus Design Makiko Ishioka
Photographer: Ruijing Photo