Studio Paolo Ferrari Designs A Theatrical Bar In Hong Kong

What makes a great bar? You might think of a low-ceilinged room with tightly packed tables, warm lighting, an attentive bartender, and good energy. For designer Paolo Ferrari, there’s also a theatrical quality. “At Bemelmans in New York or High Five in Tokyo, anyone working behind the bar is a showman, and guests watch them perform,” the Studio Paolo Ferrari founder and principal says. A great bar, in other words, forges an emotional connection with its patrons.

Two years ago, Ferrari got the chance to formulate such a place in Hong Kong. Henderson Land Development Company tapped his firm to conceive a cocktail lounge on the 38th floor of the Henderson, a 39-story tower in the financial district by Zaha Hadid Architects. The futuristic office building has a curved glass facade evoking the local bauhinia flower, and the interiors had to feel similarly forward-looking. “The client was focused on launching something exciting and different that could transition from day to night,” Ferrari continues. SPF’s fresh approach and broad portfolio—including the interiors of Desert Rock, a luxury resort in Saudi Arabia—made it a good fit for the project.

Behind The Design of Peridot Bar In Hong Kong

His team began by unpacking the idea of a bar. “It’s a typology rooted in nostalgia,” Ferrari observes. “It’s funny that here we are in 2025, and it’s common to design a bar that feels like it’s in the 1950’s. We wanted to subvert that.” The challenge was to fashion something innovative, immersive, and transporting that retained the comforting emotional cues we seek in a place for drinking and social connection.

With a ceiling height of approximately 9 feet, the 1,600-square-foot space lent itself to a cozy, cocoonlike concept. SPF divided it into two rooms, a main seating area and a semi-hidden back lounge, with the bar in between. Ferrari wrapped the interior in a prefabricated, bendable plywood shell that blurs the line between wall and ceiling and alludes to the rounded forms of the tower’s exterior. The millwork is coated in colored plaster—there’s no drywall—and polished steel frames portals between the rooms.

The plaster is a greenish yellow SPF calls olivine. “We spent a lot of time obsessing over this color, testing the entire spectrum, because it had to be unexpected,” Ferrari says. “We drew inspiration from nature, its layering, its shifting spectrum of greens.” The hint of yellow gives the establishment a golden quality by day, when it’s open for lunch and tea. The entire interior became swathed in the shade, including the window treatments, carpet, and Korean marble–clad men’s restroom. Appropriately, the 62-seat project was later named Peridot, after the green gemstone.

Shades Of Olivine Coat The Interiors

It was crucial to generate a warm, inviting mood. “When you close your eyes and think about the bars that stay with you, there’s often a glowing amber light,” Ferrari continues. “We leaned into that idea—and completely abstracted it.” SPF covered the walls and ceilings in a matrix of lights reminiscent of Yayoi Kusama’s illusory Infinity Mirror Rooms. CNC-cut circles in the plywood shell contain LED diodes for 20,000 custom lights, acrylic rods capped in polished stainless steel. “The steel pushes the light back on the wall and forms a slight glow around it,” Ferrari explains. Without that piece of metal, he adds, the rooms would feel overwhelmingly bright.

“It was a simple idea but complicated to achieve,” he admits. “The light-mapping was quite complex.” His designers worked with a lighting consultant to fine-tune the execution, ensuring the drivers could be dimmed to below 1 percent to keep the illumination soft and integrating downlights so the light quality isn’t flat. The color temperature shifts from cool to warm throughout the day. At night, Peridot mirrors the twinkling lights in the Hong Kong skyline, creating a timeless, romantic atmosphere that hits those emotional notes. “Even your grandmother should feel great here,” Ferrari adds. During the day, the polished stainless steel of the round and oval cocktail tables reflects the surrounding towers.

The aesthetic may seem over the top, but there’s also a level of restraint. Inspired by minimalist sculptors like Donald Judd and Walter De Maria, Ferrari enjoys taking something simple and repeating it: “We do the most with the least,” he says. The pared-down palette is largely composed of familiar materials like steel, stone, and wool, but they’re presented in surprising ways. Take the marble wine display that faces the back lounge. Aiming to transcend function, Ferrari conceived a case where bottles rest on angled, cantilevered stainless-steel fins integrated with more LED diodes. They shine like jewels in a bank vault.

The green marble bar itself is another standout. SPF installed polished stainless steel on the ceiling and walls around it to visually and acoustically amplify the action. Here, the illuminated plywood shell acts as a proscenium arch, as mixologists shake craft cocktails spiked with ingredients like sweet potato shochu, durian cordial, and (naturally) chartreuse. Also surprising, there are no barstools. Guests take in the show from the lounge’s plush seating upholstered in mohair or alpaca velvet, one of the colorways called citrine.

Tap Into Design Drama and Nostalgia At Peridot Bar 

STUDIO PAOLO FERRARI: JOANNA WENDERSKA; JOHN GAITAN; CRAWFORD NOBLE; RAJESHTA JULATUM; MAMI KOMIYAMA; THOMAS MOORE; MARK GENTILE; LUCAS STANOIS; SARAH YAO; LUKAS CHAN; CAT DELA CRUZ; JAYHON DAI; TARA BERTRIM: STUDIO PAOLO FERRARI. INVERSE LIGHTING DESIGN: LIGHTING DESIGN. LEGEND INTERIORS: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP.

FROM FRONT
AXOR: SINK FITTINGS (RESTROOM). THROUGHOUT TAI PING: CUSTOM CARPET. HOLLY HUNT; VERANDA: UPHOLSTERY FABRIC.