Chi-Q Shanghai by Neri&Hu: The Covered Hearth Beneath an Atrium
A Korean-inspired threshold
Chi-Q at Three on the Bund is a restaurant designed by Neri&Hu for chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Korean dining concept in Shanghai. The project occupies a prominent historic building whose central atrium had become an underused architectural feature. Rather than ignore it, the designers organised the restaurant around this height and light, giving the dining experience a sequence of thresholds and shared spaces that recalls the intimacy of traditional Korean architecture.
Guests approach through an entrance lined with charcoal-coloured timber slats and concrete flooring. Its relative darkness and restraint recall discreet entrances to traditional domestic compounds, creating a deliberate contrast with the more open dining areas beyond. The threshold becomes a way of adjusting pace, allowing the visitor to leave the activity of Three on the Bund and enter a more sheltered interior.
The bar and raised garden
The entry leads to a wooden gate, a spatial device that further separates the outside from the restaurant. Rather than rely on an elaborate reception desk, Neri&Hu uses architecture to structure the arrival. The gate suggests the passage from street to courtyard, giving a cultural reference to movement without literally recreating an old Korean house.
Past the threshold, a long bar runs beside the windows. Guests can pause for a drink while looking across a raised garden backed by a large stone block. The composition offers an unexpected sense of landscape within a dense commercial address. Light, garden elements and the stone form bring a contrasting atmosphere into a restaurant whose entrance is deliberately enclosed.
A dramatic atrium reclaimed for dining
The garden is not simply decoration. Its raised position and substantial stone backdrop change how people understand the room, introducing a protected area of visual calm between the active bar and the main dining sequence. The design invites a sense of discovery as visitors move from the timber enclosure toward a more expansive internal landscape.
Dining areas are arranged through partly sunken banquettes that lead toward a communal table positioned beneath the great atrium. This progression re-establishes the central void as the heart of the restaurant. The route increases spatial drama without demanding a large freestanding gesture, using the original architecture as a framework for the dining experience.
A canopy of light and reflection
Above the dining room, a warm-toned metal ceiling becomes the signature element. Its composition of reflective surfaces evokes dappled shadows beneath a forest canopy, changing the appearance of the room as lighting and viewpoints shift. The ceiling is not a flat decorative surface: it is intended to create a distinct atmosphere that guests experience as they sit beneath it.
The interplay of light and reflection softens the material weight of concrete, stone and timber. Darker finishes provide a sense of intimacy near the entrance, while the canopy draws attention upward to the central void. This contrast offers guests a changing spatial narrative that accompanies the sequence of food, conversation and gathering.
Material contrast and social space
Neri&Hu frames the Korean culinary concept through a balance of raw and refined materials. The heavy stone block and concrete surfaces have a deliberate physical presence, while timber slats and metal reflections create finer rhythms. Rather than imitate a particular historical dining room, the design evokes landscape and the relationship between domestic enclosure and collective life.
Chi-Q demonstrates how an existing architectural feature can be transformed into the focus of a new interior. The former atrium becomes the centre of a carefully staged journey from threshold, through bar and garden, to communal dining beneath a luminous canopy. The result connects the restaurant's identity with the site's original architecture.
Project details and photography
Project: The Covered Hearth | Chi-Q at Three on the Bund, second floor, No. 3 Zhongshan East First Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai, China. Interior design: Neri&Hu Design and Research Office. Area: 450 m². Completed: May 2014. Photography: Dirk Weiblen. Each photograph is credited in its caption.
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