Shoku-tei Sushi, a Michelin-level Japanese cuisine brand, chose Shenzhen as the site for its first restaurant in Mainland China, and entrusted local design practice NATURE TIMES ART DESIGN to conceive the space. The restaurant sits on the ground floor of a commercial complex in Futian CBD, Shenzhen. It's like a naturally growing "organism" hidden in a quiet corner. Natural elements such as stones, trees, earth and plants define its entrance, which subtly balances with the surrounding modern skyscrapers and the bustling downtown area.   

NATURE TIMES ART DESIGN excels at shaping holistic spaces from the dimensions of time, space and nature. Based on the brand's aesthetic values, the designers shook off the catchy forms and adornments commonly seen in today's instagrammable spaces, but endowed this dining space with restraining design and a low profile, hoping to make it more sustainable and long-lasting in the ever-updating market.                                         

The space features a restraining color palette and textures. Rammed earth, a traditional Chinese building material, was used to clad the interior surfaces of the front area. It creates an indoor courtyard landscape along with the boat-like stone sculpture, and meanwhile helps optimize the ventilation of the space. The main dining area utilizes various inexpensive natural materials such as terrazzo, timber and paper, brings in fabric as partitions and window curtains, and creates large areas of blank surfaces. Based on minimalist design languages, it's given a friendly scale and light environment as well as a resilient micro climate.   

Restaurant often bears the mission of offering a relaxing, sensitive, immersive and intimate environment to let people temporarily get away from the daily routine. This attribute determines that its spatial design shouldn't be merely restricted to create distinctive experiential consumption scenes for brands, but also needs to convey positive aesthetics and humanistic care to the public and return to the essence of life, especially in the post-pandemic era.