Original Chicken restaurant designed by Nature Times Art Design studio in Shenzhen China

Founded by a team of designers who combine art with experience, the Nature Times Art Design studio provides a diverse range of services, including high-end architectural design, interior design, as well as furniture and decor design. The studio’s expertise is evident from its latest project completed in Shenzhen, inside an iconic shopping mall in the popular Futian district.
The project concerns the first restaurant of the Original Chicken mid and high-end fast food restaurant brand in southern China. The brand, which boasts a history of nearly 20 years, is known for their attention to quality ingredients, based on the motto “from farm to table“, promoting a healthier and more conscious lifestyle. This corporate philosophy had a direct influence on the design choices for this first restaurant located on the ground floor corner of a shopping centre which, despite the brand’s reputation, would nevertheless have to face a great deal of competition to attract customers.
This close bond with nature and with the earth thus becomes a point of strength in a commercial environment that is a long way off from everything that is natural.
The design team from the Nature Times Art Design Co., Ltd. studio thus opted for a carefully selected colour palette inspired by low saturated earthy colours, applying it to the interior surfaces made of natural materials such as rammed earth, wood, stone, cotton and hemp.
The restaurant’s façade displays an inviting earthy red colour and is set with metal grilles and solid transparent glass, while the outdoor seating area and the beautiful green garden adapt to the warm local climate, offering a pleasant lunch break and allowing customers to almost feel like they were sitting in the countryside. Inside, double circulation routes have been created, which invisibly separate the self-service area and the dining area. The rammed earth partitions, on the other hand, offer diners a simple and genuine atmosphere, further emphasised by details such as the shoji-style windows or the traditional sliding elements in rice paper. The menus, hung on the restaurant’s windows, are written in calligraphy, illustrating the traditional charm of Oriental cultures.
The whole project artfully plays with this idea of coordinated integration between city and farm, red and green, curves and straight lines, simple and sophisticated. The Nature Times Art Design Co., Ltd. studio offers a comprehensive synthesis of several factors: old wood with mortise and tenon joints, art installations made from straw, sophisticated handcrafted details, dynamic electronic screens and interesting Chinese-style illustrations complete a spatial narrative on rice culture that seeks to convey a new look at Chinese agricultural culture to the megalopolis’ urban inhabitants.
As a whole, the project for the new Original Chicken restaurant in Shenzhen, open 24 hours and offering a range of different services, embraces all the key aspects of contemporary design. From the graphic visualisation, to the spatial structures and the creation of scenes, everything aims to create a new experience, in close harmony with the brand’s philosophy and with the desire to restore a more conscious link with the earth and its products.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Nature Times Art Design Co., Ltd.

Location: Futian, Shenzhen, China

Year: 2021

Images: Qin Zhaoliang, Original Chicken Fast Food Company


https://www.floornature.com/blog/original-chicken-restaurant-designed-nature-times-art-design-16829/