Fusion: A Harmonious Blend of Styles by Alvan Suen

An Innovative Restaurant and Office Design Echoing a Fusion Menu

The unique properties of Fusion lie in its harmonious blend of different styles. The entrance, marked by a circular portal with bamboo, evokes a sense of a mysterious Japanese garden. The steel mirror ceiling creates a ripple-like effect, especially dramatic with the bamboo. Linear lighting on the ground and roof helps outline and define different zones and volumes, while the mirror wall allows the lighting lines and space to extend beyond, creating a spacious and cyber feel. The LED outline of the booth creates a floating-like illusion, enhancing the futuristic feeling. The open ceiling and the use of steel, wood, and concrete lend the project an industrial touch, reflecting the site's identity as a factory.

Fusion was primarily created in the computer, with rendering heavily used for testing different materials and calculating lux as well as color temperature for all lightings throughout the design process. A virtual reality walk-through was created for the workers to quickly understand the project, ensuring the final result was ideal and everything worked and fit perfectly.

The seating arrangement was designed with different types of customers in mind. Regular booths cater to groups of 4-6 people, private study room-like seats are for couples or individuals who want to enjoy their food alone, a long wooden table is for larger groups or as a communal table for people who want to make new friends, and movable tables cater to different combinations of customers.

The project, located in Kowloon, Hong Kong, started in September 2018 and was completed in January 2019. The biggest challenge was creating a sizable dining space, a well-equipped central kitchen for a catering group for different food tasting, and a comfortable working space as the headquarters back office, while fully satisfying all the restrictions and limitations on licensing requirements in a Hong Kong factory.

Alvan Suen's Fusion is a testament to the power of design to challenge traditional concepts and create something new and refreshing. It's a design that not only meets practical needs but also creates an engaging and innovative environment that echoes the company's concept visually and physically.