Press Release
Saikai Izakaya Restaurant by Pang Ka I Wins the Bronze A' Design Award in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
Pang Ka I honored for interior space and exhibition design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 19, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Bronze A' Design Award in the Interior Space and Exhibition Design category for Saikai Izakaya Restaurant by Pang Ka I, designed for Decologics Stuido. The recognition forms part of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the Bronze A' Design Award Means
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
Regarding Saikai Izakaya Restaurant
Saikai Izakaya is a restaurant interior in Lisbon, Portugal. The compact space of 263.57 square meters is divided into 23 connected scenes inspired by a Japanese fishing village. Guests enter through a straw-clad market facade and move past a bar, dining trellises, a full-scale fishing boat dining zone and a double-height lantern stairwell. Modular sets, soft ceramic walls, antique boat wood and coffee-stained cement flooring create aged textures at low cost. The modular layout guides circulation and respects the heritage building.
About Pang Ka I
Pang Ka I is an experienced interior designer recognized for crafting cinematic and immersive environments, with a focus on restaurant and hotel design. Her work seamlessly merges artistry and functionality, transforming these spaces into destinations where design itself becomes a memorable experience. Drawing on imagination, exoticism, and a touch of whimsy, she reimagines the mundane as the extraordinary—weaving fantastical, narrative-driven concepts that blur the lines between illusion and reality.
Award Record
Pang Ka I is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.
About the A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award
The A' Interior Design Award is an international interior design competition recognizing good interior designs by interior designers and architects worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to interior designers, interior architects, architects and decorators from all countries. Typical entries include residential interiors, restaurants, hotels, offices, galleries and retail stores. The awarded interior designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/interior
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/177234
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/177234
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!177234
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/374272
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Saikai Izakaya Restaurant
- Function
- Restaurant
- Category
- Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture and Packaging & Retail
- Colors
- Saddle Brown, Black, Sienna and Peru
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Decologics Stuido
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Pang Ka I
- Country
- China
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #177234
Credits
- Image Credits
- Photographer Huijie Zhao, Saikai Izakaya, 2025.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Saikai lzakaya transforms a compact restaurant on Lisbon's busiest food street into a cinematic "time-travel" journey of 23 immersive scenes. Using modular sets, soft ceramic walls, fire-treated straw, and a life-size fishing boat, the design optimizes space, creates storytelling flow, and balances immersive experience with sustainability on a limited budget.
- Inspiration
- Inspired by an imagined Japanese fishing village where a samurai and geisha meet and reunite, the design translates this cinematic narrative into space. Drawing from Eastern philosophy on the fleeting nature of time, it invites diners to briefly escape daily life and become participants in a living story, turning a meal into an unforgettable journey.
- Research
- This project explores how narrative-driven design can transform the limitations of a small restaurant into an immersive cultural journey. With a budget of fifty-five thousand euros, the team created 23 cinematic scenes using modular sets and sustainable materials. Research confirms that spatial storytelling enhances customer engagement, strengthens brand identity, and delivers measurable cultural and commercial value.
- Challenge
- The main challenges were tight budget fifty-five thousand euros, heritage facade restrictions, and limited material supply. To overcome this, the team developed modular, reconfigurable sets, used soft ceramic and coffee-stained cement for low-cost authentic aging, and created slim facade lightboxes. These solutions balanced historical context, technical constraints, and immersive design goals.
- Realization and Technology
- The project employed modular construction, soft ceramic faux walls, straw facades, antique boat wood, and coffee-stained cement flooring. Budget limits required reconfigurable props, detachable furniture, and low-cost aging techniques, achieving authentic textures while ensuring safety, sustainability, and immersive effect within a heritage-protected building.
- Operation and Interaction
- Guests enter through a straw-clad market facade and move seamlessly through eight immersive scenes: market foyer, bar, dining trellises, boat dining, and lantern tunnel. Each step reveals a new story chapter. Modular sets guide circulation, allowing diners to interact with the space, engage with narrative elements, and experience dining as participatory storytelling.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in February 2024 and finished in April, 2025 in Portugal.
- Specifications
- Area: 263.57 square meters. The project integrates modular displays, a double-height lantern stairwell, market-style facade with straw and tiles, bar counter, flexible dining trellises, and a 1:1 scale fishing boat dining zone. Designed for immersive storytelling flow, the technical properties emphasize modularity, sustainability, and heritage compliance.
- Keywords
- Saikai Izakaya, Immersive Dining, Cinematic Design, Japanese Fishing Village, Soft Ceramic, Modular Furniture, Sustainable Restaurant, Lisbon, Time-Travel Experience, Spatial Storytelling
