Mama Liu & Sons
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completion October 2014
We were approached by the Liu family to rethink their restaurant on a prominent corner of Vienna’s hip and busy Gumpendorfer Straße. The new design was conceived in close cooperation with Atelier Olschinsky, who developed the graphic design and corporate identity. Our aim was to create a comfortable and warm dining environment where the hand-made quality of the food is prominently featured. The Lui family prides itself on cooking dishes that one would be hard pressed to find outside a traditional Chinese home kitchen. At the center of the space, the bar is clad in riveted stainless steel panels that reflect the wood and brick surfaces of the dining area. The riveting’s slight deformations on the steel surfaces create warped reflections that bring to mind the irregularity and inexactitude of a bygone industrial age. A painted mural on a brick wall and an antique carved wood panel also reference a past without being specific about a time or a place. The goal was to establish a space that is at once modern in its lines and flows but that also speaks to a notion of the past. The riveted bar at the center reveals views to a prep kitchen where Mama Liu and her sons roll out dumpling dough and fold gyozas. The dining area is composed of solid wood furnishings, dark gray surfaces, and the building’s original brick walls, which were covered by a century’s worth of plaster and stucco. Diners can sit along a row of medium sized tables, at large communal tables, or along the bar to catch glimpses of the family at work.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 170 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm
Graphic Design / Mural: Atleier Olschinsky
Photos by Atelier Olschinsky