In the language of geometry it is said that two straight parallel lines never intersect, even assuming that the lines extend to infinity, like the tracks of a train. And yet it seems that for once there is an exception to the rule, “brushing” within the walls of Tiandi restaurant in Shanghai.

Set within a cocoon-like and enchanting environment, the restaurant is culinary “heaven on earth” (as the translation of the word Tiandi suggests) born from the use of contemporary design language to illustrate one of the brightest chapters in Chinese history and culture: the Golden Age of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Commissioned by a Chinese art collector to Florentine architect Mauro Lipparini, Tiandi restaurant is located in the Bund, the district where the city’s most important European settlements arose and in the early years achieved their greatest splendor.

It was during this time that Shanghai earned the status of world-class capital, on equal billing with Paris and New York. Overlooking Pudong river and, today, the city’s skyscrapers, the district remains one of the city’s main attractions for shopping and entertainment given its many boutiques, jewelry stores, restaurants, clubs and discotheques. Poised for the future, the Bund has built a metropolitan image, while still preserving the mystique that set it apart during the Golden Age.

A sensual and purely feminine mystique that plays on the contrast between light and shadow, warm and soft colors, the nuances and interlacing of materials that appear throughout the rooms in different expressions, chronicling a voyage back in time. We embark on the voyage in the lounge. Dark Chinese oak herringbone parquet and a vibrant yet soothing light greets clients, in an environment dominated by the warm tones of the draperies, rugs, upholsteries and precious wood furnishings, and a large wall on which hangs a stylized geographic map that recalls the adventurous Paris-Beijing car expeditions.

In the foyer leading to the main dining hall the light gains intensity, in a triumph of reflections that ricochet off the four-sided “tunnel” composed of glass panels back-lit to accentuate the etching and milling. The grand hall is divided into three naves and here the lighting becomes more mysterious and subdued, with enormous chandeliers that hang like stalactites of etched crystal, evoking the brilliance of strass crystals and jewels and the splendor of the dresses of the era. Precious like the pleated fabric of the two niches on both sides of the grand hall. The furnishings of the dining hall were especially designed by architect Lipparini and crafted by Chinese artisans. Here, the atmospheres of the elegant transatlantic ocean liners of the early 1900s are echoed and live jazz music entertains guests.

The custom-made furniture interprets the Art Deco style and blends with armchairs, sofas, wall lamps, sculptures and ornaments original of the period. The corridor also features hushed lighting and leads to the ultra-private VIP rooms (in keeping with Chinese tradition) lit by original Murano glass lamps by Barovier & Toso from the 1930s. Each structurally different from the next, the adjoining VIP rooms can be linked to create a single imperial hall for special functions. The leitmotif of the design is the painstaking pursuit of elegant and stunning materials and finishings: from the smoothed travertine stone with wax finish effect to the plaster applied with intersecting tone-on-tone brushstrokes that give materiality, to the ebony boiserie whose irregular forms recall the multi-faceted design of the glass elements, to the brushed burnished metal cut with linear and circular graphic motifs that intertwine to create the logo of the Bund district.

With a bit of imagination, as you look out the window, you can still make out the tree-lined road it at one time overlooked, the riverboats, the women strolling, the men with stories and adventures to tell. A special place with an important heritage where you can nostalgically breathe in some of the precious Golden Age.