An 8.5-metre-high shell became the starting point for Moutarde: a contemporary French bistro created with chef Paul Pairet at WEAVE in Sentosa. Rather than disguise the scale, the design uses it to set up a deliberate tension between an industrial backdrop and the warmth, detail and theatre of a classic bistro.
CLIENT
Resorts World Sentosa
LEAD DESIGNER
Hannah Churchill, Alexandra Davies
DESIGN TEAM
Changwei Zhou, Yicheng Zeng
PHOTOGRAPHY
Seth Powers
The challenge was to make a vast, open volume feel intimate at the table while supporting a highly visible food programme built around whole-piece cooking, carving and sharing. The space also needed to organise the carvery, wood-fired oven, maturation room, wine cellar, central bar, dining areas and private room as one coherent experience.
We treated the existing volume as an industrial canvas, retaining the openness of the raw ceiling and layering in exposed brick and steel joinery. Against that stripped-back shell, more refined elements introduce the bistro: cabinetry informed by antique furniture and traditional butcher’s blocks, etched glass, embossed leather, mirrors, reflective subway tiles and chandeliers. Oversized custom lighting, heat-lamp shades, industrial fans and XXL artwork make use of the height rather than fight it. Two large back-to-back banquettes anchor the dining room, while the carvery, maturation room and wine cellar frame the central bar and turn food preparation into part of the spatial experience.
The result is a restaurant built on contrast: raw and refined, rustic and polished, expansive in scale but intimate in use. The architecture gives the food programme room to perform, while layers of detail bring warmth, character and a recognisable French bistro sensibility to the industrial shell.
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