Le Canard Bistro — Baicai Design

Le Canard Bistro

Le Canard Bistro is a Shenyang-based Western dining brand known for its refined fusion cuisine. For the new space, the brand seeks to carry forward its established character while offering a more open, relaxed, and contemporary dining experience.

Project Info:

Status: built, 2025
Area: 360 sqm
Client: LE CANARD
Location: Shenyang
Photography: Topia Vision

The project is located on the street level of Shenyang Kerry Centre, with a fully open frontage and generous ceiling height. Rather than shaping it as an enclosed interior box, we envisioned the space as an urban public plaza—open and approachable, carrying a sense of everyday warmth while remaining inclusive of diverse rhythms and scenes.

The spatial layout draws inspiration from the organically evolved fabric of European villages. Formed over time rather than by a single plan, their winding streets and irregular volumes create small, varied open spaces that naturally become social nodes. We sought a similar logic here: a plan that is dense yet breathable, compact without feeling compressed.

Materially, the design avoids overt symbolism in favor of neutral, objective finishes and a restrained color palette. Purple is introduced as the emotional tone of the space—not as decoration, but as a subtle intervention that softens the conservatism often associated with Western dining interiors, adding sensorial tension to an otherwise rational structure.

A light architectural base further enhances the relaxed atmosphere and leaves room for visual expression.

Large-scale murals act as a key perceptual layer within the space. Rather than conveying a specific narrative, they evoke an abstract sense of landscape through scale and color, forming an “atmospheric nature.” This visual extension blurs the spatial boundary, creating a transition between the interior and the realm of imagination. Soft furnishings and displays are conceived as extensions of the overall spatial language. Material textures and natural qualities are carried into furniture and objects, ensuring coherence at a tactile level and offering a continuous, unified experience through use and occupation.

The bar and prep counter serve as the space’s outward-facing interface. Everyday objects—tableware and products alike—are openly displayed, becoming part of the spatial expression. Connected to the open kitchen, the bar reveals the rhythms of preparation, turning process into presence and bringing people closer to the space and the food itself.

Ultimately, the Kerry Centre location of Le Canard Bistro is not intended as a place solely for dining, but as a setting for everyday urban life. Here, food, space, and people intersect, forming a relaxed yet grounded state of living that invites return and lingering.

About

Baicai Design is a multidisciplinary design practice based in New York and Shenyang, working across architecture, interiors, exhibitions, and spatial design. Its practice spans different geographies, scales, and cultural contexts.

Founded by Kaiwen Zhao, Baicai is shaped by his interdisciplinary background in design and architecture. Zhao studied Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture. He currently teaches in the Department of Industrial Design at RISD, and has previously taught at the University of Colorado Denver, lectured at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and served as a guest critic at Syracuse University.

Baicai approaches space beyond the conventional boundaries of interior design, bringing together architectural and product design thinking to address spatial questions. Through different scales of intervention, we explore the relationships between space, objects, and human behavior.

New York:
540 Fulton St, Brooklyn, NY, 11201

Shenyang:
A07International Software Park, Shenyang, China

baicaidesignoffice@gmail.com

Awards

FRAME Wellness Space of the year Shortlisted
2026

Paris Design Awards Winner
2026

MUSE Design Awards Gold Winner
2026

Dezeen China Rising Firm of the Year
2025

POSITION Award China Best 100 Young Architect
2024

Guangzhou Design Week 40 Under 40
2024

AD China 100 YOUNG
2022-2024

Architizer Best Young Interior Design Firm Special Mention
2024

Forbes China 30 Under 30
2023

FRAME Small Residential of the year Shortlisted
2023

FRAME Award Best Emerging Designer Nominee
2023

APIDA Design Award Excellence Award
2023

FRAME Pop-up Store of the Year
2022

FRAME Window Display of the Year Shortlisted
2022

WYDF TOP 100 Designer
2022

Dezeen Award Shortlisted
2022

Architecture Masterprize Best of The Bests
2022

AD China 100 YOUNG
2020-2022

Architecture Masterprize Honorable Mention
2022

KUKAN Design Award Shortlisted
2022

DNA Award Winner in Workplace Design
2022

DNA Award Honorable Mention in Workplace Design
2022

DNA Award Honorable Mention in Showroom Design
2022

K-Design Award Winner
2022

Novum Design Award Gold Award
2022

Novum Design Award Silver Award
2022

IDA Design Award Honorable Mention
2022

FRAME Best of the Month
2022 April

Design for Asia Award Bronx Award
2021

Design for Asia Award Excellence Award
2021

IDEA Design Award Finalist
2021

Golden Pin Design Award Winner
2021

Golden Pin Design Award Honorable Mention
2022

Press

Baicai Design’s work has received international media coverage across architecture, design, fashion, and culture. The studio has been featured in publications including Gestalten, INTERIORS, AD China, FRAME, Interior Design China, My Home, and id+c, alongside leading global platforms such as Dezeen, Leibal, Architizer, Divisare, Vogue, ELLE China, Yatzer, Cosmopolitan, gooood, Archilovers, Designverse, and Archello.