The objective of this study is to analyze the characteristics of Chinese traditional expressions on modernized Chinese restaurants in Beijing. A total of 12 restaurants were chosen for investigation. Traditional expressions include traditional reproduction, traditional transformation and traditional reinterpretation. The research result showed that traditional reproduction was found to be the most commonly used method, while the application frequency of traditional transformation and traditional reinterpretation were similar. The detailed result of the research is shown as the followings:
For traditional reproduction, it was found mainly manifested through the reproduction of traditional ornaments, in particular, the facade and interior element ornaments. The research target was modernized restaurants in which traditional ornaments were set to attract people’s attention or emphasize in traditional spacing.
For traditional transformation, it was mainly manifested in replacement material while changing the shape slightly, or to stretch, shorten prototype shape and other negative deformation methods which did not largely out of the scope of traditional reproduction.
For traditional reinterpretation, it was expressed by abstracted, symbolized or metaphoric designs in which people can hardly recognize the traditional archetype directly. The application of traditional reinterpretation was assumed to be relatively fewer than traditional reproduction or traditional transformation, however, the application of traditional reinterpretation and traditional transformation were revealed from the research to be similar in its frequency.
As one of the positive performance methods of traditional modernization, traditional reinterpretation encourages applications especially for ceiling design. Chinese traditional cloud patterns have three-dimensional and diversification of use. For wall design, traditional elements were extremely simplified or adopted with a wide variety of traditional elements, diversity may be preferred. In addition, furniture was tinged with traditional elements in modern form, lighting was added with symbolized color or picture in which the shape was simplified to emphasize space’s traditional. However, the range of variation for facade, name, floor, and window elements were not wildly promoted with the use of positive traditional reinterpretation method.
The tradition of a country keeps changing constantly and the way of change is unpredictable. In particular, all the things change rapidly in a contemporary society. Therefore, how to modernize traditional culture is an important issue and it should be developed in the desired direction. For China, how Chinese traditions were applied in the modern restaurant space in the capital Beijing is a topic which is worth for an investigation. Due to this reason, I hope the study could be helpful for setting the future development direction of Chinese traditional space design.
Since the research result is based only on the analysis of 12 cases, it is not representable to be generalized. how Chinese traditional were applied in the modern restaurant space in China’s capital Beijing is a serious issue.