NUVA is a gourmet restaurant at AsiaWorld-Expo, near Hong Kong International Airport. Led by Cordon Bleu chefs from France, this Chinese fine dining restaurant was designed to attract new clientele to the venue and the surrounding area.

NUVA’s entrance is a bronze metal arch with punched pattern louvres. The arch’s background is a series of fluted white stones, making the arch appear to be an inlaid ornament on a sea of white jade. NUVA’s front of house sprawls over 710 square metres, offering a spacious and expansive dining experience. Embracing a modern gourmet design aesthetic, a large copper bowl-shaped bar provides a lively socialisation spot and a central focal point for the restaurant.

Floor-to-ceiling windows run across the full 48m width of the space, taking full advantage of the unobstructed panoramic landscape outside the windows and giving every seat a view of the spectacular natural scenery. The seating arrangements include tables, a VIP dining area and semi-circular banquettes, giving guests their choice of social experience.

Mirrored ceilings enhance the visual space, while a large crystal bar chandelier in the shape of a cirrus cloud hangs from the ceiling, creating a metaphor for the ever-changing clouds and sky. The bar floor is paved with marble carved in large floral patterns; these are mimicked in the carpets in the dining areas and VIP room.

The feature walls in the restaurant’s main space are decorated with customised wall panels based on the ink-and-water painting of a Lantau Island mountain scene which recurs around the AsiaWorld-Expo building, bringing the natural world indoors and amplifying its beauty. The designers also coordinated with artists to include large-scale modern oil paintings with line-drawn geometric cirrus clouds which are hung in the background, reinforcing the restaurant’s earth and sky motif.