A Restaurant Inspired by Victorian Greenhouses

In Kuala Lumpur restaurant Jibby by the Park, Wunderwall Design has woven a lush narrative that melds indoors and out

Located in Kuala Lumpur’s Desa ParkCity neighbourhood, Jibby by the Park brings the bucolic beauty of its park location indoors. Malaysian firm Wunderwall Design has created a setting that evokes the romance of Victorian greenhouses, where arched structures lead the eye upward, terracotta floor tiles lend an outdoor feel and translucent glass screens soften the ample light flooding in through a skylight and double-storey wall of windows.

This mise en scène is complete with bountiful botany: plants in bulbous pots casually lines corridors, while tree foliage peeks over the mezzanine, which offers a clear view of the treetops outside. Emphasising the Victorian glasshouse theme are miniature moss topographies in Wardian glass cases, covering walls like a three-dimensional mural and sitting under glazed tabletops, inviting close inspection like museum exhibits.

‘The client approached us with the singular idea of crafting a dining experience set inside a greenhouse filled with real living plants, a proposal that most F&B operators shy away from due to the maintenance required,’ says Ee Wil Ken, a founding partner of Wunderwall Design, who worked with a landscape designer to select the right plants for the various spaces. For instance, large trees are placed under the skylight, while mid-height plants are placed behind the textured glass-and-steel screens to create silhouettes.

The double-storey space evokes the loftiness of Victorian glasshouses, contrasting with the long, cosy area near the entrance, while a staircase leads patrons up to a greenery-draped bridge to the mezzanine. This crafted sequence stitching high and low, and dark and light mimics a walk through a park, with alternating patches of shade and openness.

Before embarking on the design, Ee researched precedents like the famous Palmenhaus Schönbrunn greenhouse in Austria and the wrought-iron glasshouses in London’s Kew Gardens. He interpreted elements of traditional greenhouses in a modern way, streamlining them and surrounding them with rustic textures to avoid anything kitsch. Ample light highlights plastered walls, custom concrete bricks, textured glass and lime-treated timber that exude an aged quality; forest-green Bidasar marble clads the bar, while underfoot are geometric mosaic floor tiles and a Persian carpet beneath a timber table; the sprightly lime and lemon upholstery adds comfort to the steel, rattan and timber furniture, which includes long benches reminiscent of wrought-iron garden seating, all coming together in an environment that encourages languid lunches away from the city bustle.

Text / Luo Jingmei
Images / David Yeow