The best bar and restaurant projects from 2015-2019


We discover the best Bar and Restaurant projects from the last five years


With categories for everyone, ranging from large-scale projects to products, architects to developers, the FX International Design Awards is a competition that invites both international and UK designers to enter. Interested in entering the 2020 FX Awards? Put your project forward before the deadline – 25th July! All information can be found here.

In light of the approaching 2020 FX Awards season, we’ve created a new article series that explores the projects that have previously won FX Awards. Each article showcases Award-winners from 2015-2019, and focuses on a particular category. In this article, we’re looking at projects that have previously won the Bar or Restaurant Award.

Judging the FX Awards is an independent panel of experts – one that changes for every category, and each year of the Awards – which means that projects that have won the Bar or Restaurant Award can accurately be considered the best in the world.

2015

Yuan at Atlantis the Palm, by Steve Leung Designers

The first fine-dining Chinese restaurant at Atlantis the Palm, Dubai, Yuan showcases the ethereal splendour of old China, providing an elegant, sophisticated environment for guests to enjoy authentic Chinese dining in the heart of the Middle East. Featuring a blue and grey colour scheme, the spacious dining hall includes a raised platform furnished with a row of tables and high-back chairs.


Image: Chen Zhong

Steve Leung Designers have chosen a contemporary design for the space, which includes a subtle lighting scheme; the bar features a backdrop of beige onyx stones and a mother-of-pearl shell mosaic, while the upper dining hall is decorated with Chinese embroidery wall panels. On the other side of large screen doors, a private dining room has been designed with koi-patterned glass feature walls, and a unique aquamarine carpet.

2016

Ophelia, by Dining Concepts

A unique dining venue in Hong Kong, Ophelia’s interior design has been created focusing on a single animal as a central theme: the peacock. Incorporating the peacock’s magnificent colours throughout the design, Dining Concepts have created a modern design that includes the culture of the Far East, and a ‘representation’ of modern life in the city: metalwork is combined with velvets, suedes and leathers to create a layered interior, which has visual depth and a unique ‘wow’ factor.


Image: Ashley Sutton

Guests enter Ophelia via a hidden entrance in ‘Mr Wong’s Aviary’; the structural columns and lift shafts within the space have been used to create intimate alcoves and semi-private rooms. Once they step into Ophelia, guests will encounter various homages to the peacock, including pictures screen-painted on bamboo, 32 metalwork-and-peacock-feather art pieces, and 600,000 hand-painted ceramic tiles that showcase the colours of the peacock feather’s ‘eye’.

2017

Fucina Restaurant, by Andy Martin Architecture

For the Fucina restaurant, AMA was challenged to create an environment that reflected the statement: ‘Organic produce, sustainably sourced and prepared honestly using Italian artisanal techniques’. In response, the design team has created a refuge from the hustle and bustle of London life, creating a contemporary space that is a faithful portrayal of Italian taste, and includes elements that reflects Italian culture.


Image: Nick Rochowski

Details of Fucina’s design include a handmade antico mattone ceiling; a hand-laid marble chip floor, which has been set into traditional terrazzo cemento borders; and a floor-to-ceiling steel-framed screen. AMA also used materials that reinforce the restaurant’s organic nature, including handmade brick, forest-wood, marble, and burned steel panelling details. Even the furniture feels organic, with the large table-tops resting on shaped tree branches.

2018

Las Chicas, Los Chicos Y Los Maniquis, by El Equipo Creativo

Split between two rooms in a hotel in Madrid, this restaurant has been designed with a carefree atmosphere and a distinctly colourful character, which references Spain’s post-Franco counter-culture – the Movida Madrileña – and Spanish film director Pablo Almodovar’s visual universe. Even the restaurant’s name, Las Chicas, Los Chicos Y Los Maniquis, is the title of a song that accompanies the Movida Madrileña.


Image: Adrià Goula

Two large red leather bars sit in the two rooms of the restaurant, acting as multi-functional centre pieces – in the morning they function as breakfast buffet tables, transforming into snack and beer bars for the afternoon and evenings. It was important that the restaurant’s design also paid homage to the classic neighbourhood stores that are an important part of Madrid’s popular culture; the design team chose to add these elements by filling the restaurant with large, striking commercial posters, with commercial names.

2019

Tingtai Teahouse, by Linehouse

A traditional Chinese teahouse with a modern aesthetic, Tingtai Teahouse is located in a former textile factory and art gallery in Shanghai’s Moganshan Road art district. For the project, Linehouse stripped the space back to its raw state and removed a mezzanine, exposing a double-height space and the patina of the concrete structure. The design team then inserted a series of teahouses with shifting rooflines, which are framed at either end with full-height glass in order to offer a view out and let in natural light.


Image: Dirk Weiblen Or Yann Song

Resting on a green terrazzo landscape, the teahouses are clad in brushed, darkened stainless steel; the interiors are clad in smoked oak, making them simple and warm. The glass ‘horizon’ in each teahouse provides privacy for guests inside, but also gives them a sense of the activity beyond the four walls of their teahouse. A floating staircase takes guests from the street to the upper floor, and the main space is used for events including temporary art exhibitions.








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