January 5, 2023

Words: Jesse Dorris

Photography: Wen Studio

RooMoo Design Studio Make Waves for the B3 Bistro in Shenzhen

A restauranteur approached the three founders of Shanghai’s RooMoo Design Studio with another potential trinity: a new bistro to design, named B3 after its offerings of brunch, bistro, and bar. Each of these seatings would create its own wave of guests—and so the idea of three waves quickly became the overall design concept.

“Playing with transparencies and light,” explains founder Marine Bois, “we used stainless steel mirrors to play with perception and to propose a detachment from reality to create those three waves.”

The first wave defines much of the 2,400-square-foot exterior in the form of a partition with stainless steel plates that ripple in the wind. A second wave covers the entire bar and kitchen of the 1,200-square-foot interior, also made of stainless steel pieces illuminated at night with varying colors of LED light. Finally, a solid wave forms a cozy niche for guests in the airy dining room. “The three waves allow different seating arrangements and divide the space without creating walls,” Bois says. “In the process, it creates different areas and corners to amuse every eye.” 

Another triptych, this time of brick, solidifies the concept. Cladding the walls, the bricks are cut as if to reveal sedimentary layers, in a gradient of three horizontal lines. The bricks rise and crest at the glass ceiling, meeting the mirrors. Custom furnishings complete the design, utilizing a natural material palette of teak and oak with limewashed walls. Down the center of the space, a bar orients guests to the dining area to the right, while giving staff easy access to the kitchen on the left. 

“B3’s food is fresh, energetic, and joyful, and we wanted the design to reflect that in the interior,” Bois says. “But the space is relatively small.” Due to its compact size, an initial concern centered around the thought that diners may eat and run. In the end, though, they found multiple ways to wave goodbye to that worry.

a wall lined with vertical bricks in front of dining tables
Custom teak-and-aluminum tables and chairs by Shanghai Yanshuyi Decoration Design align with the brick grid of the walls.
pendant lights hang above the dining tables in a restaurant
Custom pendants and table lamps by Shanghai Gome Lighting mix with architectural recessed lighting.
the patio of B3, with outdoor seating
Shanghai Yanshuyi Decoration Design also custom-made the patio’s tables, sofas, and chairs.
an outdoor patio with greenery lining the walls
An outdoor patio offers custom tables and chairs by Shanghai Yanshuyi Decoration Design, and Jian Bian lighting.
a booth lines the wall atop light oak wood floors in this bistro bar design
Light oak wood floors from Shenzhen Z.H.G. Decoration Design Engineering help keep shadows at bay.
a bar lined with white tubular tiles on the front
White tubular tiles front the bar, which is solid oak and topped with brown marble.
mirrored stainless steel in a grid pattern lines the celling of a bistro bar design
For the ceiling, the team welded cuts of mirrored stainless steel to the metal structure.
a booth lines a lime washed wall in a dining area of a bistro
Limewashed walls add texture to the dining room.

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