This Hong Kong street food-inspired restaurant brought renowned elevated food in a quickly changing area. The fast-casual access allows friends and family to sit together, below a custom rope installation I designed that brings geometric motion into the space.
Hey Hey wanted a space that did not compete with the food - the star of the show. I designed a space on a minimal budget that is inviting, feels fresh, and sticks in your mind. The bright green seating is an accent color that draws eyes from the street, while the block rope installation that connects points from the walls to the celing delineates the space in a way that breaks up negative space without detracting from the feeling of openness.
As Project Lead, I carried the Hey Hey Canteen renovation through design development and construction. The design keeps the existing rough brick and smooth concrete and layers in wood through three treatments — solid natural white oak tables, ebony-stained benches and serving counters, and white-stained ceiling boards. I designed, prototyped, and installed the rope installation that animates the room, and ran inexpensive fluorescent strip lights on a diagonal behind a gel that modulates the light.
Design that gets out of the way. On a minimal budget, with the food as the star of the show, the brief was to make a room that frames the experience without competing for it. Learning where to spend restraint — and trusting that a quiet space can still be memorable — was as much a discipline as any detail I drew.
Add to what's already there. The existing shell — rough brick, smooth concrete — was the palette, not the problem. Layering in wood through three treatments (natural white oak, ebony-stained, white-stained) against those raw textures taught me to design additively: let a space keep its character, and let a new layer give it warmth and order.
Design it, then make it. I designed, prototyped, and installed the rope installation myself — the room's one deliberate gesture, doing the work of decoration and spatial rhythm at once. Carrying a single idea from sketch to prototype to installed piece — and turning cheap fluorescent strip and a light-modulating gel into atmosphere — sharpened my instinct for how a concept survives contact with the hand and the material.
