Restaurant Porn is a column of daydreams presented as a means to introduce BC diners and designers to concepts, looks, and fully-formed ideas that they might draw an inkling of inspiration from.

(via) We spy a subversive idea in this tiny fishbowl of a cafe in Shanghai’s leafy Xuhui District. Designed by Beijing’s B.L.U.E Architecture Studio, most of the hard edged seats at this new location of % Arabica (over 80 stores in 15 countries) are outside its curved and tracked glass wall panels, turning the inside into an enclosure that discourages computer use and gatherings, thus changing the accepted function of the neighbourhood coffee shop as a relaxed hangout and rendezvous into something more like a caffeine injection site. Inside are just two tiny table tops and a concrete bench, the former way too small to accommodate a laptop, let alone anything other than two or three cups of coffee. You want a pillow? Go fuck yourself. Though outwardly inviting, the design appears to be something of a trap. Here’s your coffee. Now beat it.

– All photos by Eiichi Kano –