Baoism: A Hip and Modern Version of The Traditional Street Food Baozi

A new and modern concept of traditional street food Baozi has emerged in Shanghai, China, and created by a shop called Baoism. The shop was successfully constructed in 2015 by LineHouse to bring out a hip version of Baozi, a street food served in a clam-shell like bun.

Baoism

In the façade, you can see the logo and branding for Baoism, derived from the concept of I-Ching, known as the oldest of the Chinese classics of an ancient divination text. The I-Ching text is called Zhou Yi.  The logo’s basic unit comes from the hexagram composed of six horizontal lines in which each of them is either broken or unbroken. Meanwhile, despite the ingredients used are a modern interpretation, Baoism maintains a traditional cooking method using a woven bamboo steamer and it becomes the main focus of display in the kitchen.

Woven Metal Panels

Inspired by the traditional handicraft, LineHouse applied the notion of weaving with a non-traditional material in a spatial way.

That being the case, perforated raw metal panels were chosen to weave between the structure, framing the service area and dining area.

Two Structures

The concept of stacked and directional lines was adopted to make two structures that frame the dining and service/kitchen areas. Floating in-between the structure is custom lights installed at a high level, offering a broken rhythm above. In addition, a datum line of bronze poles highlights the lower half of the structure with the raw steel above. Both materials were chosen to create a playful composition of refined vs rough. Here you can also see wood leaners are available for guests to dine upon.

Dead Wood Composition

‘Dead’ wood composition is seen on the bar counter. It has a 450mm x 450mm wood section stacked upon each other.

A burnt logo makes an appearance in front of wood elevation. The shop also provides canvas menu boards and graphics hanging from the structure at a high level and acting as blinds that can be opened or closed based on the shop’s time of operations.

Referred from the petite wooden stools, the shop equips with the custom bar stool, usually see on Shanghai’s street corners. Moreover, a wooden handle operates as a mechanism to hang bags or move the stool.

Via LineHouse