Hidden in a eucalyptus forest is the Garden Hotpot Restaurant which has just won the Restaurant & Bar Design Awards 2020 as the most beautiful restaurant in the world.
At the end of 2018, MUDA-Architects was commissioned to renovate the Sansheng Township in Chengdu.
The Sansheng Township, known as the “green lung of Chengdu”, has unique natural conditions.
In this context it was necessary to maintain the integrity of this natural environment by creating a restaurant that respected both the ecological aspect and the economic purpose of the facility.
A structure where nature dictated design rather than the opposite.
It is an architecture made of trees rather than walls, with eucalyptus plants and lotus flowers blooming on the surface of the lake.
The Garden Hotpot Restaurant
MUDA decided to eliminate the walls, using only pillars and planks to support the building in the woods, allowing the building to integrate perfectly into nature.
The building follows the line of eucalyptus trees, so no tree has been touched for construction.
In addition, the free curve of the roof has been designed according to the characteristics of the site and function.
In total, the building has a circumference of 290 meters, with a height of 3 meters, and the width varies with the natural environment.
The platform is made of anti-corrosion wood and the roof is made of galvanised steel sheet, coated with white fluorocarbon paint.
The load-bearing structure consists of a series of steel columns with a diameter of 88 mm that blend with the straight trunks of eucalyptus trees and disappear into nature.
The curved wooden railing on the lake shore was built to allow customers to enjoy the view and to blur the boundary of the lake, which brings people closer to nature.
And when the fog rises, the architecture seems to disappear, leaving room for the vapours and fumes of boiling pots, the hotpot – a kind of Chinese fondue, made from a metal pot full of boiling broth accompanied by a series of dishes with various raw ingredients.
At the same time, it is also an experiment for MUDA in small-scale, low-cost architecture.
The construction team, composed of local migrant workers, has no professional knowledge and tools.
To ensure quality, the architects have simplified the complex structural nodes.
