GENTLE L BY ALAN YU

GENTLE L is a French restaurant that sits on the second floor of Hilton in Futian District, Shenzhen, China. The letter "L" represents the initials of Léon LI, co-founder of the restaurant, while "GENTLE" implies a sense of ritual and French elegance.

Most French restaurants usually have a traditional spatial pattern. As approaching the project, the design team, however, made an innovative attempt, which broke with the conventional layout while also bringing in French-style elegance and romance. From geometric shapes to natural material textures, dim light and music, all elements are aimed at producing unique and emotion-evoking spatial experiences and allowing people to enjoy the space as if they are appreciating a piece of wonderful music.

When people enter the restaurant, a large red logo backdrop wall firstly comes into view, the coarse texture of which symbolizes nature and health. Decorated with the delicate metal logo, the red wall brings surprises and stimulates imagination.

Slanted curved structures are freely combined in the space. The fluent planes and broken curved shapes form fluid spatial scenes. The overall space is semi-enclosed, which not only ensures privacy but also enables people to enjoy varying scenes and have different feelings when walking in it. The dim light environment emphasizes that people is the protagonist in the space.

At the center of the space erects a huge steel column made of hand-made stainless steel featuring wrinkles, which soften the column visually and make it appear more flexible and elegant, hence becoming a visual highlight in the space.

Curved stainless steel screens are used to separate private rooms effectively. Meanwhile, such arrangement ensures the timeliness of services since it provides better field of vision, without interrupting diners. The design realizes an exquisite service system.

Set at the corner of the restaurant, the bar area is accessible to all dining tables. Not far away from every dining area, it satisfies necessary functional demands while also adding a romantic yet playful character to the space. Different from common noisy pubs, the bar area enjoys the charm of tranquility.