Open Studio crafts izakaya-style restaurant with giant dumpling lamp in Singapore

Singapore-based Open Studio has designed Dumpling Darlings, a 100-square-metre small-plates restaurant at the New Bahru shopping centre, drawing inspiration from traditional Japanese izakayas. The studio, co-founded by Jax Tan and Lam Jun Nan, reinterpreted the izakaya's street-spilling character with a low, corrugated perforated steel roof in dark red that creates a sense of roadside enclosure. A giant pale-red fibreglass dumpling lamp, half-dipped through a roof cut-out, serves as a beacon reminiscent of traditional akachōchin lanterns. The interior features plywood booths and tables with metal joints, custom chairs by local maker Gamar Furniture, and rice-paper pendant lights by Like Lights. The colour palette of deep red and warm plywood evokes a warmly lit Japanese street at night. The restaurant is located in New Bahru, a former breeze-block-clad modernist school turned lifestyle hub. Photography is by Johnston Lim.