Japan and China are worlds apart—they’re even fierce opponents on a number of largely political hot topics. However, on a cultural level, there’s no denying that the latter harbours a secret fascination for the Land of the Rising Sun, eagerly absorbing every imaginable trend, innovation and custom. For many years, Beijing‘s well-heeled have indulged in plentiful upscale Japanese eateries, and we mean ones that wouldn’t look out of place in Aoyama or Ginza, but as of late, a new establishment has shaken up the Japanese fine dining with a contemporary approach and vibe that’s unprecedented in this sprawling capital. The buzz isn’t just about the food and service, but obviously also about the setting. Aptly called The Corner, the dining establishment is housed in a newly built structure in the city’s Zuojiazhuan neighbourhood, on the intersection of busy roads, low-rise residential dwellings and office buildings. Fully designed by MDDM Design, an architecture practice based in Beijing and Berlin, the cube-shaped structure boasts a strikingly graphic façade, made up of white stone and latticed wood which playfully alternate solidity and translucency. A protruding entrance, crafted from black steel, simultaneously shelters a Japanese-style mini garden. The interior sees three distinct areas, each serving a different purpose. The ground floor is home to a reception area, and sees homey settings with comfy sofas and chairs, and all against a backdrop of the building’s concrete shell, flooring of large stone tiles, and a wooden bookcase which extends onto the ceiling, creating a coffered effect. A seemingly inserted wooden volume accommodates The Corner‘s whisky bar and an adjacent V.I.P. room for the restaurant’s most discerning of guests. Up the stairs, on the second floor, a corridor captured in stone runs along the entire façade and leads to a large room with a sushi bar and a private room, both in timber and situated at the front of the building. The large room comes with a zen-like patio filled with pebble stones, and both are semi-concealed by the façade’s latticed wood.
The Corner
14 Xinyuan Nan Lu (Zuojiazhuan)
100016 Beijing
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
