OCON noodle, Chengdu, 2019

Located on the edge of a public plaza in Chengdu, this project explores whether the pace of street food culture can coexist with the city’s tradition of slow urban life. In searching for this balance, the project found an unexpected connection to the atmosphere of French café terraces depicted by late nineteenth-century painters. Though rooted in different histories, both the Parisian terrace and Chengdu’s slow-life culture—deeply influenced by its teahouse traditions—celebrate time shared beyond necessity, transforming eating and drinking into a way of participating in urban life. The site is an unusual volume: narrow in plan yet generous in height. The brief called for both a mezzanine and an awning for outdoor seating. A single elongated canopy became the project’s defining gesture, extending from exterior to interior and resolving both requirements at once. At times, the project feels as if a scene from the iconic painting Café Terrace at Night had found its way into contemporary China. Yet despite fundamentally different spatial organizations—one unfolding parallel to the street, the other extending deep into the site—the project reveals an unexpected affinity between two urban traditions shaped by the simple act of sharing time in public.

Photo : SS Keishin Horikoshi