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There is something about Chinese calligraphic paintings that make me sigh in awe. Picture this – you have entered a painting surrounded by mists over the mountains at dawn’s awakening with the rays of the sun filtering through, casting soft silhouettes everywhere. Now imagine that you are experiencing it within your very own space with a gastronomic feast.

Sounds dreamy enough for a table for one? You are finding yourself seating within Highland Star Chef Restaurant. Located at the top floor of the Shenzhen’s Yanhan Highland infrastructure, the Highland Star Chef Restaurant is a sentimental love letter to the surrounds, “from nature, and back to nature.”

Designed by JG Phoenix, Highland Star Chef Restaurant is built on a combination of modernist principles. At 1,280 square metres, the interior can be perceived as a roof garden while incorporating Le Corbusier’s ‘free plan’ together. Light white I-beams frame the space, allowing ‘free planning’ and compartmentalising of dining spaces. Towards the entrance that can be reached by climbing a set of stairs, five private dining rooms array the corridor.

Each room is disguised by diagonally aligned walls that point towards the contours of the site. The irregular arrangement narrows in the visitors’ view before expanding towards a box office-like space with a balcony that faces the Yanhan Mountains. Passing the labyrinth-like corridor with undulating walls awaits a kitchen and logistics at the back. Throughout, variations of light and shadows of the window and structural frames sundials around the white walls and cement floors, creating a different pattern for every hour.

With the main spaces bordering the edges, a courtyard spills into the heart of the restaurant. A white ceiling with large skylight canopies over a grid arrangement of I-beams, providing a peaceful venue for waiting and outdoor entertainment.

Maintaining the link between the architecture and surrounding nature, sound elements are returned through crunching gravel, clicking sounds of the shoes against timber decking and planted trees rustling in the atrium. Symphonies of birds can be heard from the courtyard’s open balcony that faces south. The almost free façade from the courtyard to the internal restaurant can be appreciated from a standalone dining room that nests in the corner.

Being part of Yanhan Highland, a creative hub within the Nanshan District of Shenzhen, allows for Fengqiwutong Decoration Company to instil creative ties with nature where walls of the restaurant conceal it. The front entrance sits a thinking polar bear, accompanied by a wall with an ensemble of 3D printed mountain terrain tiles. Wicker chairs, timber dining tables, and natural stone sinks garnish intimate areas. Elsewhere, variations of Gongshi (scholar’s rocks) are strategically placed to signpost access to the nearest outdoor opening or view.

Away from the bustling Shenzhen and into the calm, Highland Star Chef Restaurant offers a serene escape. A reinterpretation of a roof garden restaurant with simple but poignant moments – it’s architecture waiting to be read like a poem.

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