Wu Wei: Wanwei Roast Duck & Beijing Cuisine (Wangfujing Branch)
เกริก บุณยโยธิน
17 January, 2024 at 12.28 pm
Elevating the brand image to resonate with the target audience, making the space a vessel for memories, embracing a contemporary sensibility, and imbuing it with spirituality. Navigating the market currents by flowing with the stream, while retaining a distinct and authentic identity.
“The traditional taste serves as a spiritual bond, and young people are enthusiastic about weaving it into the fabric of the new world.”
In June 2023, Wanwei teamed up with IN.X, and together they completed the design of the Wanwei Roast Duck & Beijing Cuisine restaurant at the Wangfujing Department Store in Beijing. From Chengdu to Beijing, from regional delicacies to a century-old shopping street, this marks another exploration of how the ancient and the contemporary, Chengdu and the capital, tradition and passion can blend. This time, Wu Wei believes that it is the blending of culture and ambiance that gives rise to stories. And thus, Wanwei Roast Duck & Beijing Cuisine comes to life.
Spiritual Essence of Space
/Incorporating Modernity and a Sense of Time
Preserving what grounds us while infusing the passion we aspire to.
At Wanwei, what we preserve is the essence, and what we aspire to is the vibrant urban life. Thus, a balance between warmth and coolness, passion and precision, smoothness and ruggedness, the contemporary and the past is achieved with space as the pivot. The space continuously poses questions and, in turn, provides answers. The narrative quality is the underlying design thread woven into the space.
The space is established against the urban backdrop of Beijing, while its brand originates from Chengdu. Within the space, the ambience of Chengdu, the “City of Heavenly Abundance,” subtly emerges. To portray this intangible quality that cannot be built, the designer indirectly extracts it from urban life, much like a flower growing from a seed. Chengdu has been a city of immigrants since ancient times, and the inclusive, carefree, and vibrant spirit of the city is incorporated into the space. The contemporary urban characteristics of the brand’s DNA are delineated through interwoven architectural elements, glossy metallic surfaces, and the ethereal warmth of floating hues.
On the flip side of modernity is the sense of time that the space imparts to diners.
Taste always connects us to time and tradition, so everyone harbors an inherent obsession with certain flavors: Peking duck, Beijing cuisine, the old city, hutongs, and the imperial city. Memories continuously emerge entwined with flavors—before the gray-blue stone walls, beside beams and columns covered in cracks, in the shadows of pine, bamboo, and stones. Time and space are firmly locked together, and taste blends seamlessly with the present moment, creating a precious experience: a sense of existence. In the rapidly evolving landscape of commercial spaces and experiential scenes, this is the treasure we are most likely to lose.
