Inns Whiskey Bar, Chengdu – Sichuan, China

Unlike so many bar designers, Wooton Designers did not take the typical manly whiskey bar ethos and twist it a little when they designed Inns Whiskey Bar.

The bar is located in Chengdu, the 7.8 million-inhabitant capital of Sichuan Province where bars of every kind can be found. To stand out, you must do a bit more than just the minimum.

For more than four months, Wooton Designers and the construction team worked at transforming the simple, nearly rectangular 150 square metre (10.7 sq.ft) space into something where the patrons could actually feel whiskey, not just drink it. The entire space was treated more like an art installation and less like a bar with seating, although the leather seating and an impressively stocked bar of course are there as well.

The designers took their design and colour cues from the copper still and shaped the amber-hued walls to evoke the inside of a still. In its golden, rounded shapes and lowered ceiling, the small indoor space feels more like a hive or a cave where honey and gold leaf have hugged every corner till they are all rounded and textured as if ripples have passed through for eons.

To add to the full-body experience at the bar, these imaginary ripples have caused a small pond to form under a section of a floating wall. The pond water is spiked with whiskey  which produces  an overall scent of whiskey for the entire room. Tuija Seipell