Wolf Market | DEFT

Design Team: Norman Ung, Peter Lampard, Tony Lai, Hazel Fun

Located on D’Aguilar Street in the heart of Hong Kong’s most popular nightlife hotspot - Lan Kwai Fong, Wolf Market is a bar/restaurant embodying Hong Kong financial centre’s favourite pastime: the stock market.

DEFT were selected to define the interior design, shopfront design as well as the branding and identity. Reminiscent of a cosmopolitan, city-slicker bar in Wall Street, the space is defined through the use of video walls, stock ticker screens, and dark materials.

To stand out from the pack in such a saturated nightlife market as Lan Kwai Fong, DEFT conceptualised on the lines of a stock market trading floor - a concept that would resonate with the target audience of Hong Kong’s traders and bankers seeking to test out strategies in a low risk environment.

Banking on the fact that Hong Kong is home to the highest concentration of financial institutions in the world along with the largest concentration of fund managers in Asia, the Wolf Market logo, illustrations, typography, business cards, menus and colours reflect Hong Kong’s long-standing relationship with finance, trade and success.

Wolf Market is divided into two sections: the Trading Floor and the Trader’s Room one level up.

One of the hidden gems of the ground floor space space was the massive bay window on the ground floor. In replacing and restructuring the seating to afford patrons the pleasure of people-watching and a view of D’Aguilar street, we were able to free up unused space in the bay window to bring customers up a few steps for a prime people-watching spot. For the upstairs floor, known as the Trader's Room, DEFT designed a more sophisticated feel. Accessible via a hidden stairwell behind dark tinted glass, the décor throughout is shades of black.

The Trading Floor on the ground level recreates the fast-paced vibe of a stock trading floor. The main wall is dominated by the most standout feature of Wolf Market: the drinks menu displayed on a giant LED screen, with prices that go up when demand is high, or fall when it’s low - completely automated and spanning the entire ceiling as well.