In the heart of Copacabana, on the busy Rodolfo Dantes Street, Cantón – or Guandong in Chinese – emerges, a chifa that brings Chinese-Peruvian cultural fusion to the vibrant Rio de Janeiro scene. The project is developed in a period heritage building, whose double height and spatial amplitude allow a scenic experience to be conceived at a single glance.
The concept is based on geometry: squares that, when added together, generate an imperfect square. In the centre of the space, a single column supports the whole and stands as the organising axis, dividing the restaurant into four areas.
The first of these is the entrance bar, conceived as a cabinet of Chinese curiosities. Its backlit shelves display bottles and adonis imported from Lima’s Chinatown, while a neon with the word “Chifa” evokes Lima’s popular facades, generating a contrast between the street food aesthetic and the sophistication of a contemporary restaurant.
The second space is the main hall, a scenography dominated by dozens of paper lamps that descend from the ceiling as if they were the scales of a dragon in full dance. The atmosphere is dynamic, alive, in constant movement.
Finally, the open kitchen and bathrooms complete the tour. Here, the stoves become a spectacle: the fire, the steam and the frenetic pace of the kitchen reinforce the festive identity of the project.
Canton defines itself as a Chinese carnival in Rio de Janeiro: excessive, colorful, bizarre. A space where migrant tradition and contemporaneity come together to give life to a stage that is, at the same time, a party and a gastronomic ritual.