Project: BLG French Restaurant
Architects: Tanzo Space Design
Location: Qinhuangdao, Hebei, China
Area: 5,812 sf
Year: 2022
Photographs by: UKStudio-Ricky
BLG French Restaurant by Tanzo Space Design
An open space always has the power to activate and drive urban renewal. The BLG Haibi Terrace store, spanning nearly 600 square meters, has created a miracle: transforming from a mere restaurant into the hottest landmark, driving a challenging third-tier city real estate project and establishing a new model of sales promotion through artistic demonstration — “People are buying houses here because they love dining at the restaurant and being neighbors with Chef Peter.”
A decade ago, Haibi Terrace was known for real estate and its supporting facilities as a new domain. Today, it is one of the most expensive locations along the Qinhuangdao coast. As a key real estate project under Kerry Properties, BLG, along with other third spaces, shares an art center building. By adding cultural value through galleries and supporting spaces to a larger real estate plan, it offers a desirable new way of life, constituting the vitality of Haibi Terrace.
BLG’s attributes are diverse; the restaurant caters to the Haibi Terrace community residents while being open to the public, gradually becoming a pleasant social hub along the coast. It has become a gathering place for local elites and business communities, gradually turning into the second home in the hearts of many outsiders. This is the magic of BLG; this is the magic of Haibi Terrace.
Haibi Terrace Project: Located in the prime sea-view golden zone of Qinhuangdao. The overall planning of the project is designed by Moshe Safdie, with four sets of L-shaped buildings, two towers, row houses, and commercial spaces. Each unit comes with a balcony or garden, and the layered terrace design ensures sea views for every household. The architectural innovation includes the use of building voids, stacked terraces, interconnected sky bridges, blending human architecture with natural landscapes.
Designed during a 3-month period of the pandemic and constructed in 2 months, TANZO completed the BLG French Restaurant (Haibi Terrace store). Chinese partner and chef Peter (private chef to artist Cai Guoqiang) provides guests with unaltered authentic Southern French cuisine, attracting a full house especially on holidays. Unlike the well-known myth of Ananya, Haibi Terrace is an enclave of an ideal country, waiting for wanderers to end their long journey here and find a home.
In the sea breeze of the Bohai Bay, BLG creates an intersection between people, architecture, and nature, aligning with the life ideal proposed by architect Safdie half a century ago: a Habitat dwelling that includes community, connecting people and nature, inspiring a new way of life through architecture.
Ark on the Shore/Architecture within Architecture
Noah, following God’s command, built a large ark to allow land creatures to escape a flood brought about by God’s punishment. Inside the gray architectural box, designers have semi-embedded a new structure, a horizontally cylindrical form composed of smooth facades and strip-shaped long windows. After establishing a connection between horizontal and vertical axes, energy and light traverse through it. This “parasitic” architectural technique is ecologically efficient, awakening new imagination and meaning in the symbiotic relationship between the old building and the parasitic structure.
The interplay between landscape and artificial space, nature and imagination, Western architecture and poetic modern design gradually emerges in the nested contrasts. In imagination, it is an ark, and the image of a sea vessel always brings a sense of peace amidst chaos. Its enclosed yet gently enveloping interior is akin to a maternal womb, nurturing the spiritual rebirth of the Bohai Bay.
From the outside in and from the inside out, the building’s rounded surface seems weathered by sea waves, and in people’s imagination, it can become any space. Importantly, unlike the speechless collective architecture, it is an organically conscious host; people enter it, and then subtle changes follow in certain aspects.
Bar/Space and People Solidify into the Sea
Pass through the narrow black wooden door and step into the black-and-white corridor, and on the ground floor lies a small bar. The diverse and charming French atmosphere, frozen countless times on the movie screen, is now revived, enveloping you in hazy lights mixed with the damp sea mist.
The physical interface between the space and the outside world is the entire glass wall at the corner. “Under the original building’s horizontal and vertical structural framework, we needed large glass panels to converse with the sea.” During the day, the endless beach and waves extend into a solidified sacred sculpture in the depth. In the evening, the entire glass seems to vanish in the soft light of the indoor lighthouse, and sand grains and waves break and spread on the shore in the rhythm of the wind.
The intervention of semi-parametric design and the wrapping of multiple surfaces inside achieve the “solidified sea,” with a gray-white textured surface conveying the rough-grained feeling of sea sand. Sands gather into towers, condensing into soft, meandering waves. The whiskey bar and curved coffee bar in front of you are like two floating islands on the conscious sea. The evening sky, gently swaying clouds, souls rejoicing with glasses in hand, sacred time—each one is awakened one by one by the DJ’s music and the harmonious play of the waves.
From the bar, ascend to a new world.
Head Chef Restaurant/Homeland in a Foreign Land
The dim cavity structure of the staircase serves as a prelude, embraced by a sense of security as it ascends until sunlight and sea breeze illuminate the scene. The head chef’s radiant smile and the exquisite aroma of Southwest foie gras and Mediterranean oysters momentarily transport people into a trance.
The second-floor space is an “open to the sea” area, with the kitchen occupying half of the space. From the bar to the back kitchen and then to the window with a view of the outdoors, the spatial scale of the chef’s domain imparts a sense of intimacy, as if visiting a friend. Clad in black amidst the handcrafted black bricks, the chef blends seamlessly with the background. Above the bar hangs expensive but enduring copper cookware (from the Italian brand Lagostina), and aged beef is fermenting in the aging cabinet, maximizing the complex aromas. Far from his homeland, this kitchen makes Peter no longer a stranger.
Beige woven fabric covers the ceiling equipment, hanging down delicately. The floor tiles are made of a natural stone imported from Spain. Due to the fan-shaped convergence towards the window when viewed from above, the brick joints are adjusted on-site to control this subtle change. The smoky pink glass takes on the colors of wine, roses, sunlight, and sunset. The fishnet-like metal opens inward, allowing people to walk to the outdoor corridor, akin to strolling from an ancient castle to modernity a century ago, shaking off the dust of the ages, appearing fresh and clear.
The strip windows extend internally into smooth arches, and tranquility is the current auditory experience. The pouring sunlight is the divine light in a church, the kitchen light in Proust’s snow-night dusk, and the unpolished light of nature. With the folding doors open or closed, these areas can freely switch between open and closed, meeting various dining needs.
A Warm Symbiotic Space
Affected by seasonal changes, maintaining local architectural spaces is not easy, but since its opening, BLG has consistently maintained its elegant vitality. Different outsiders gather here, becoming grains of sand, handfuls of water, coalescing into a symbiotic space that is light, warm, and filled with flowing energy.
“BLG Haibi Terrace store is the core store among the owner’s several shops, and operationally, it is the most challenging. Over the past two years, the restaurant has always been in a vibrant state, nurturing the space itself. The owner’s enthusiasm, health, and persistence within the restaurant are amplified through this scene, and that is also the achievement of the design.”
From 2022 to 2023, Haibi Terrace has become one of the most vibrant business and vacation communities in the local area, also serving as a fervent spiritual haven for countless individuals. The story of BLG continues to be written by them.
-Project description and images provided by Tanzo Space Design
