Wildurban Architects has built a restaurant featuring a cave-like roof in Nankun Mountain National Forest Park, Huizhou, China. 

Named Nankun Secret Art Restaurant, the restaurant provides a space for multi-purposed activities such as art exhibition, brand launch, catering, and gathering, as a generator of multiple functions.

Covering a total of 353-square-metre area, the restaurant is located in a valley 800 meters above sea level in Nankun Mountain National Forest Park. 

"There are 5 original brick-wood structure holiday villas built in the 90s in the place, with a very low-density layout to balance the relationship between architecture and nature," said Wildurban Architects.

Thanks to its original roof directed to different angles, inside it searches for various spatial arrangements with height difference and bold, red-colored central staircase.

The architects used the gable roof as the prototype to get the original spatial form of the cave and try to create a space that contains memory and faces the future. 

The new roof is derived from the gabled roof, enveloping the flowing space like a cave, carries the infinite imagination of the future.

"Topological evolution of traditional prototypes; construction and space are completed simultaneously," added the studio. 

"We use the gabled roof of the original building as a topological prototype to respond to the memory of the place." 

The architects set up gabled roofs in the three directions of the building facing the lake, forest and road, allowing nature to be introduced into the internal space, connecting them separately to form a continuous roof, floats above the forest and lake. 

Having a continuous roof, it also naturally forms the internal cavity space. Natural views, lake and light ripples, and people's activities all occur and show in the flowing space.

"The new roof form evolved from the gabled roof is familiar and unfamiliar in our memory because it creates a new spatial experience," the firm added.

The internal space and external shape of the building are completed simultaneously, as the architects highlight in a project description, and thanks to the multi-directional variety roof forms, the interior spaces also change irregularly. 

There is a red-colored spiral staircase that connects the upper and lower levels of space in the center of the entire space and becomes the manifestation of behavior activities in the space. The undulating ceiling space, with artistic texture, creates a natural cave-like space atmosphere.

For the material selection, the team used titanium-zinc tile for which it is not only a response to tradition but also a manifestation of the present. 

"The dark gray roof makes the building volume more stable and restrained in the environment," the studio added. "Grey's artistic texture paint creates a cave-like atmosphere." 

"Light, water ripples, and forest landscape all interweave and present in the space."

Wildurban Architects said: "After the completion of the Nankin Secret Art Restaurant, a number of events have been held, and visitors and various township and village departments have been in an endless stream." 

From the enthusiastic response after its completion, it can be seen that Nankun Secret Art Restaurant is no longer a simple restaurant space, but diverse exhibitions, performances, dining, and leisure, and a platform for local residents and urban crowds to share and communicate.

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Project facts

Project name: Nankun Secret Art Restaurant

Architects: Wildurban Architects

Location: Huizhou, China 

Size: 353m2 

Date: 2020

All images © Anson

All drawings © Wildurban Architects

> via Wildurban Architects