Office AIO was awarded the World Interior of the Year 2024 with its project Pang Mei Noodle Bar LFS in China at the INSIDE Festival, a sister festival of the World Architecture Festival (WAF). 

The playful design of Office AIO's Pang Mei Noodle Bar in Beijing, China, improves interaction within the restoration and streetscape connection.

By offering different menus and service models at different times, the client aimed to test out a hybrid operation. 

In order to meet various operational requirements while interacting with and energizing its surroundings, Office AIO developed a system of spatial programming that varies throughout the day.  

The secret to the restaurant's transformation is a roller shutter, which opens during peak hours to allow for full table service while remaining closed during off-peak hours for speedy counter service.  

Double-sided window seats make use of the arterial walkway and courtyard exposure, and the design creates a corridor along the façade for grab-and-go orders.

Above the bi-fold windows, a stainless-steel superstructure protrudes from the façade, giving the complex a imposing yet whimsical appearance. In order to maintain the building's overall design narrative, Office AIO also created custom furniture.  

"This project is an essay in clever design applied to a successful noodle bar business. Its exciting vocabulary of soft walls, roller shutters and cramped tables and chairs capitalises on the real star, the food," said judges of the World Interior category.

"When less busy, dining is confined to the inside, but at busy times it spills onto the street beneath a chunky glass and steel canopy. A veritable machine for dining that ticks all the boxes – for its customers, its staff and its owners," they added.

Operation modes diagram

Layout plan

INSIDE is the sister festival of the World Architecture Festival (WAF), the world’s biggest live architectural awards programme, celebrating the very best in interior design. 

Inside World Festival of Interiors took place at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, on the 6 - 8 November 2024.

Last year, SJB's 19 Waterloo Street in Australia was awarded the World Interior of the Year. 

All images © Wen Studio. 

All drawings © Office AIO. 

> via WAF 

bar World Interior Of The Year Award