Doko Bar in Shenzhen, China by Waterfrom Design

Rather than resist the rise of social media and its influence on hospitality design, Waterfrom Design has fully embraced the age of ‘internet celebrity’ with Doko Bar dessert shop in Shenzen, China. The concept was spurred by Andy Warhol’s now infamous saying “In the future, everyone has a chance at 15 minutes of fame.”

Doko turns the process of dining out into an orchestrated, theatrical show, with patrons treated as though cast in a play from entering to eating. Waterfrom treats the restaurant as a piece of experimental performance art, an immersive experience that comments on the act of observing and being observed. The entire space is a 360 stage, reflecting on blurred boundaries between the real and virtual world, whereby people gain real-life confidence from affirmation on social media.

A take on theatre curtains, Waterfrom built veiled, layered partitions out of glass, metal mesh, galvanized sheet metal, nylon threads, and stainless steel. Semi-translucent curtains made of nylon thread have a hazy, mysterious appeal, used to construct walls of varying density. Square motifs inspired by Instagram frames and screens punctuate the space and form internal ‘windows’, meaning every seat in the house has a view of some kind of prime action.

The standout frame structure takes the shape of a red box, seemingly suspended in mid-air. This VIP room is fixed on a visual axis akin to being on centre stage, yet at the same time as if in a secluded opera box. Raised, regal and mysterious, the box is Waterfrom’s ultimate expression of the observer and the observed. Contrasting materials such as heavy elm timber panels, transparent nylon shield, and cool concrete floors imbue a sense of continuous dynamic energy.

The entrance hallway features a curtain comprised of around 10,000 nylon threads. Sometimes perfectly still and sometimes slightly adrift, Waterfrom uses the curtain to symbolize the complexity of interpersonal relationships, real and virtual, solid and nebulous.