Baoism is a new food concept originated in Shanghai, making a modern version of the traditional Chinese street food guabao, served in a clamshell-like bun.

© Olivier Hero Dressen

Architects: Linehouse

Location: Shanghai, Shanghai, China

Area: 52.0 sqm

Project Year: 2015

Photographs: Olivier Hero Dressen, Dirk Weiblen

From the architect. Baoism is a new food concept originated in Shanghai, making a modern version of the traditional Chinese street food guabao, served in a clamshell-like bun.

© Dirk Weiblen

Although the flavours are a modern interpretation, the age-old process of cooking in a traditional woven bamboo steamer is a prime focus of display in the kitchen. Linehouse took this traditional handicraft notion of weaving and applied it in a spatial way with a non-traditional material; perforated raw metal panels are woven between the structure that frame the dining area and the service area.
© Dirk Weiblen

The branding for Baoism stemmed from the concept of I Ching, an ancient divination text and the oldest of the Chinese classics. The text of I Ching is called Zhou yi. The basic unit of this is the hexagram, a figure composed of six horizontal lines, each line is either broken or unbroken.

© Dirk Weiblen

Linehouse used this concept of stacked and directional lines to cr...