NEW LEAF
EALING, LONDON
Completion 1992

Design strategies for Chinese restaurants have taken two routes: the traditional ‘bamboo and dragon’ school, and deliberately un-Chinese solutions. At Ealing’s New Leaf restaurant we choose to reinterpretate the materials and forms of a Chinese ornamental garden which avoids being kitsch through its spare, uncluttered details and the confident expression of the timber structure. From the street, the interior is designed to be perceived as a free-standing pavilion within the room which is expressed as an entrance gateway on the street frontage.Original details include Chinese bells and the curved, triple timber balustrade in front of the windows.