Where the walls tell stories of the East

In today's social media-obsessed world, people go to restaurants not only to eat but also to take photos. And for an aesthetic photo, you need an aesthetic background. Thus, contemporary restaurant owners do not hesitate to invest in interior design.

Walls are a significant element of interior design. An artistic mind sees a wall as a canvas. However, Travel East, an Asian fusion restaurant in Dhanmondi, takes a different approach. Instead of a painted wall, the wall holds plenty of painted plates that tell stories of the East.

The Business Standard talked to M Shihabul Wares and Sudeshna S Chowdhury of DOT Architects, which was the architectural partner of the project.

"The idea was to make the entire place Instagramable so that you take a photo anywhere from any angle; people can recognise that it's Travel East," said Sudeshna S Chowdhury.

Travel East serves the savoury cuisine of East Asia. Their logo resembles the shape of a fish and their menu lays emphasis on items made of fish.

As you step inside, you will be greeted by a soothing and elegant environment. The wall at the right side of the entrance will catch your eye first. Designed with gray, rounded CNC cut-outs, it represents fish scales.

There's a piano in front of that wall and plants in places. The entire ceiling is painted in a deep gray colour, which provides a dark tone and highlights the interior even more.
 
But that is not all on offer. The real attraction of Travel East stands hidden from the entrance. It is the feature wall. As you walk over to the other end, it will catch your eye. Above a maroon sofa, the gray wall features 78 painted plates. Four focus lights are placed above to highlight the wall.

"As it's located in a commercial building, there were some limitations. There are glasses on three sides. So the scope of working with walls was limited. Hence we came up with the idea of a feature wall," said M Shihabul Wares.
 
The white plates are hand-painted with acrylic colour. Artist Dilshad Aftab painted on each plate individually, and they were installed on the wall later. The paintings portray different elements of Eastern sceneries like mountains, trees, birds, boats, pagodas, etc.

"Photography is my passion. But I enjoy working with various mediums, particularly challenging ones. So, I painted the pictures using a porcelain plate as my canvas," said Dilshad. "Given that the restaurant is named Travel East, I opted for an ancient oriental painting theme, using Chinese black ink, which complements the overall collage beautifully." Since Dilshad painted on ceramic plates, the acrylics were baked in to make them last longer.

A third material was used to screw the plates onto the back and stick them to the wall. Wares said that they conducted a trial by sticking a plate to the kitchen wall and leaving it for 15 days. The trial was successful, with no safety issues.

Travel East covers the full floor of 2,160 square feet of space. It took around three months to implement the design.

"The other branch our client has in Banani is designed in a bluish-teal colour. They wanted to introduce a new colour here. To make the environment moody, we chose maroon and gray to give it a dark tone," said Sudeshna S Chowdhury.

"It was challenging to make the overall ambience dark since three sides of the restaurant are exposed to sunlight," added Wares.

If you want to witness the elegance and feast your eyes, travel to the 10th floor of Concord MK Heritage building, Saat Masjid Road, Dhanmondi.