Shoreditch, London

A found restaurant space,
a Thai place down the road.

Singburi 2.0’s resonates the spirit of Singburi 1.0’s treasured authenticity as a space which is found, rather than explicitly made.

As a found space, some elements remain untouched, some are refined and some are twisted, in the same manner as what street-food vendors would do on a daily basis or in a Thai kitchen, where conventions are constantly free to question, explore and re-create.

The spatial openness of the long corner room with a 4-meter tall glass façade and ceiling is accentuated by a linear layout. A dining hall stretches along the front, while a show kitchen and a counter bar anchors the rear. Behind a wall of warm terracotta tiles, the back-of-house functions, including back kitchen, storage and toilets, are discreetly concealed.

The ceiling - an exposed weave of circular steel beams and metal-deck flooring - celebrates the raw honesty of the architecture, creating a space that feels both expansive and light. Mirroring this, the concrete structure of the London Overground bridge, which runs along the whole length of restaurant, aligns in height with the interior, creating a seamless visual and spatial dialogue. Together, these parallel ceilings dissolve the boundary between inside and out, creating an outdoor-like atmosphere and a casual communal sense of a meal. At the same time, the linear layout draws diners close to the kitchen, offering a front-row experience of the fire, the smoke, the sound, and the dance of those in the kitchen - from every corner of the restaurant.

While the space offers an immersive panoramic experience, the use of small-scale, tactile materials draws the visual focus down to the level of the table and the food, grounding the architecture in the intimacy of the dining experience. Echoing the assertive orange ceiling of Singburi 1.0, warm orange hues now ripple throughout the space in layered tones and textures. Terracotta tiles in varied patterns stretch piece-by-piece across the back wall, forming an end-to-end continuous backdrop - not only for the concrete and stainless-steel kitchen and counter bar but for the whole length of the interior. At the front, a terrazzo floor embedded with stone off-cuts spans the entire dining hall, visually stitching the space together. Lighting is kept understated and utilitarian—rows of conventional tube lights are angled to illuminate the room, mounted directly onto the original blockwork, shelving, and structural bracing.

More rice, anyone?