22 July 2019
Inspired by Andy Warhol’s words that “in the future everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes”, Taiwan-based studio Waterfrom Design has conceived the interior of Doko bar by considering the eating process a show.
The concept behind the entire project focuses on placing diners at the center of a grand show. With social media and celebrity culture in mind, the place aims to become a 360 degree “theater experience” of observing and being observed; from the open, transparent spaces, to the bright colors and perfectly “instagrammable” plates of food, every step of the process is designed to see and be seen.
From the moment a guest steps inside Doko bar and takes a seat, the chef prepares his dessert, the waiter delivers the dish and the guests finally tastes the delicacies, every step of the way is like tight-coupling chapters of a play. Everyone in the store becomes a member of the platform. The space is a laboratory in which people taste their food.
The first floor revolves around the chef bar, forming a couple of concentric circles and a multi-facing theater stage. Going into the stairs to the second floor and the hallways with transparent windows, the stage has been expanded into a 3D structure. These hallways are just like runways in fashion shows. Streams of guests taking their seats have become movements in the show.
In the midst of layers of hallways and frames, the giant bloody red box seemingly floating in midair is most conspicuous. Distinct from other semi-transparent media, this highly real VIP room fixed on the visual axis is like a theater stage also like a secluded box on the second-floor balcony of a classical opera theater.
The surface layer of the interior architecture here is like theater curtains. Waterfrom Design chosen glass, metal mesh, galvanized sheet metal, nylon threads, and stainless steel to build a transparent and semi-transparent, hazy and solid contrast in the materials. Of those, nylon is the most expressive in showing hazily mysterious curtains.
