the ping pong experience
Ping Pong’s first restaurant opened in London’s Soho, architect David Marquardt and brand designer Niclas Sellebråten have developed an interior architecture and style that is contemporary yet respectful of the traditions of dim sum cuisine. Combining a sense of relaxed order with warmth and comfort, the restaurant possesses its own distinctive atmosphere, yet at the same time defines the ideal of the modern dim sum restaurant everywhere.
Steam is the key element at the very heart of the Ping Pong business, the chief means by which dim sum is prepared, but also it evokes - with its dynamic form - the twists and turns of Chinese calligraphy. In addition to providing a versatile brand image for packaging and general communication, it works as a powerful decorative feature in the restaurant’s interior, on select walls billowing out serenely against a black background.
On the ceiling, Ping Pong devised a repeating pattern of haikus in Chinese script to provide a harmonious complement. The average diner may be little concerned to look up from his or her table to decipher these ancient sayings, but none the less they contribute discreetly to the ambience of authenticity, and have been carefully chosen to express the Ping Pong values of community, friendship and sharing. Geometric lattice-work screens provide a seamless visual link between this ceiling pattern and the decorative device of steam on the walls.
Ping Pong is a rare example of a rigorous holistic design in which specialists from different disciplines gathered together at the outset of the project to work out a rational system that would not only express Ping Pong’s brand identity and values but also - in the most efficient, economic and cost-effective.
