Abstract Cityscape

SOPA uses the "Abstract Cityscape" to counter the current trend of minimalist styles (cold) or realistic scenes styles (hectic) in the food and beverage industry. The 380-square-meter Q eatery restaurant features an interior design based on “the Strategy of Strips,” divided the space into five strips. The first four strips use wrapping membranes, bamboo mats, polypropylene plastic, and aluminum foam to abstractly represent the richness and complexity of visual elements commonly found in food markets. The last strip combines the previous four elements to form a complete super strip. The 260 square meter business area is limited, but through the "strip" strategy, it is large enough to constitute a miniature city market: with five stall strips, two "plazas" of different sizes, two "alleys," and one main road. This creates uncertainty, variability, and diversity in the space. "Strips" set boundaries and order, preventing richness from turning into chaos. "Strips" are utilized as semi-private rooms or food tents, while "plazas" serve as communal dining spaces with long tables and water bars. In a dramatic way, "alleys" differentiate between private food tents. If the "main street" is compared to the structural framework of writing, and the "strips" represent the raw materials for story events, then the spatial experience becomes the plot of the stories. As customers navigate through various story events within the pre-established structure, they encounter completely different scene experiences, enriching the overall narrative. Lastly, those spaces and interfaces outside the "Abstract Cityscape" cannot be incorporated into the realistic abstraction system in terms of materials. In this project, we define them as virtual or void spaces. Borrowing the principle of "Chroma Key," these spaces become green screen spaces that can be anything or nothing. Customers can enjoy a variety of otherwise impossible experiences here, created by the combination of Chroma Key apps and imaginative virtual environments. SOPA establishes an abstract and virtual cityscape within the contemporary marketplace (shopping mall). Abstraction is not nostalgia or replication of traditional street food experiences, and virtuality is not a critique of the commercial erasure of cultural context. By combining the two, the aim is to bring some imagination and fun to our lives confined to cubicles and mobile phones.