KI Club Delights With Its Tranquil Hues And Luxe Vibes

Ever wondered what became of Barbara Handler—aka Barbie—after the 2023 film? Perhaps she traded Malibu for Hong Kong, her true birthplace, where Barbie and Ken first tumbled off the production line. With Ruth Handler’s advice to chart her own path still echoing, she steps into a city that, like her, thrives on reinvention. KI Club, an invitation-only kitchen showroom and event space on the top two floors of Hong Kong’s Cubus complex, feels like the kind of setting she’d choose to explore a new indulgence.

That’s because half of the 2,600-square-foot penthouse club is bathed in pink, a beloved color of Sandra Wong, founder of Kitchen Infinity, which has distributed such luxury European kitchen brands as Gaggenau, Molteni&C, and Poggenpohl throughout Hong Kong and Macau for the last 30 years. She’s also the vision behind KI Club, for which she sought more than a traditional display space, one that emitted femininity and social buzz but also neutrality and a feeling of home.

How NC Design & Architecture Reinvents KI Club

“A standard showroom is simply boring,” says Nelson Chow, founder and design director of NC Design & Architecture, which brought Wong’s vision to fruition. Instead, his studio created a stagelike milieu where chefs, friends, and collaborators cook and comingle. Inspired by Tuscan wineries, KI Club modernizes classic vaulted architecture while honoring its heritage. A layered layout guides guests through distinct yet connected environments across its two levels, which each have a singular color scheme—Wong’s beloved rosé or calming blue. Defined by striking dualities—female and male hues, solid and void, festive and serene—the concept invites memorable experiences that balance hospitality with the comforts of home.

Guests arrive on the 28th floor, greeted by a lounge, bar, and dining area that are an ode to Barbie and Wong’s preferred shade, but done with depth and restraint. Paneling of Italian Begonia Rosa marble, veined like a summer sky at dusk, anchors the room. Large eye-shape ceiling fixtures by Tino Kwan are fitted with soft pink LEDs. Chow’s heart-shape sofas and chairs further the theme, upholstered in dusty-rose bouclé. “Playing with pink is deceptively tricky,” continues Chow, who studied fashion after earning his master’s in architecture. “You have to master the form, the layers—textures, marble, fabrics, carpets—it’s like orchestrating a landscape. The key is it never gets too cute.”

A Barbie Pink Palette Reigns In KI Club

Helping with that, on the walls not clad in marble, Hong Kong–based French artist Elsa Jeandedieu applied her signature oscillation technique, shaping lime-mineral surfaces into leaf-inspired patterns. Brass panels frame the fireplace, yielding a gentle glow. Guests seated at the 20-foot-long, marble-topped dining table with their backs to the fireplace face pale-blush screens CNC-cut with mesmerizing rows of uniform circles. “They were inspired by the vibrant streets of Milan, drawing on the communal aspect of eating at long outdoor tables on the street, in front of beautifully crafted doors from different eras,” Chow says about the club’s screens and doors, which are also decorated with metal studs. It all adds up to a refined celebratory vibe.

One flight down, the mood shifts. Brazilian Cielo Blu marble surrounds the 27th-floor dining area and cooking studio, surrounding them in oceanic calm. If the lounge was Barbie at the party, this is Barbie at home—barefoot, in the dream kitchen, the convertible parked for the night. The tranquil palette invites focus: on a soufflé rising, on flavors arranged with architectural precision. It’s a culinary atelier where knives are sharpened, skills honed, and ideas exchanged. Part performance, part workshop, the show kitchen, boasting all Gaggenau appliances, hosts residencies, tastings, talks, and the Culinary Artisan Series, where 14 of Hong Kong’s Michelin-starred chefs lead intimate cooking sessions, transforming herbs and blooms harvested from a secret rooftop garden into farm-to-table experiences.

KI Club’s material narrative is equally precise. Another 20-foot-long marble dining table appears in the blue dining area; both are divided into three sections, with every joint treated as an opportunity for creativity. Wavelike seams link the slabs with a soft gesture, turning a technical necessity into a design detail. Plus, the tables’ apparent solidity is an illusion: A recessed lacquer band between each top and base delivers monolithic presence with material economy.

Chow extends the motif to the club’s restrooms, from their door hardware to their sinks, all in marble. Through a water-jet technique that allowed intricate cuts without compromising the stone’s integrity, the handles and sinks are flowing, undulating forms, representing a significant challenge achieved. And texture extends beyond stone. The bouclé seating fabrics, from Italy and France, invite touch. High-gloss lacquer sharpens furniture with a tailored snap.

Materiality Delivers Luxe Vibes At This Hong Kong Club

A subtle spiritual reference threads through the project, as well. On weekends, Wong, who dressed in head-to-toe pink for KI Club’s opening last March, hosts Sunday gatherings and bible studies at the showroom. A quiet cross motif emerged from this gesture: A constellation of metal studs appears on the screens, handles, and the door to the balcony, delicate enough to carry meaning without a strong religious tone.

Chow is responsible for another thoughtful and discreet flourish. “I’m quietly thrilled by the lounge’s sliding brass-and-marble panel that hides the TV. It’s practical yet sculptural,” he says of the screen used for culinary demonstrations. It subtly disappears, and the room resets to let conversation and community take center stage.

Walk Through KI Club In Hong Kong

NC DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE: ALLY SO; MATTHEW LUNG; TESSIE TSE; EDDIE WONG; GARY LIANG. TINO KWAN LIGHTING CONSULTANTS: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. DECCA HK: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP. STONEWEALTH: STONEWORK. ALPHA CONTRACTING: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT GESSI: SINK FITTINGS (REST­ROOM). THROUGHOUT GAGGENAU: APPLIANCES.