Step Inside Peckham's New Vietnamese, Lai Rai, Where Unexpectedly Colorful Interiors Are as Fresh and Vibrant as the Cuisine.

Joseph Losper and Tomio Shota of London-based spatial design studio house of baby were invited to imagine Lai Rai by co-founders Blair Nguyen and Ivy Vo of South London snack collective 𝒱ℐ𝒩𝒜𝒳𝒪𝒜 and visual artist AP Nguyen, the then General Manager of its sibling restaurant in Peckham, Bánh Bánh. Describing their practice, which finds its roots in food, theater, fine art, and digital design, as "distinctive, experiential, and cinematic", they explain Lai Rai was born as "an emotionally and culturally resonant, living artwork", and was shaped by their backgrounds.

Known for their whimsical, tongue-in-cheek approach to anything from textile artworks and stage clothes to wavy tufted rugs, house of baby's physical environments are where all of their interests collide. It isn't just me feeling disoriented at Lai Rai: "we create immersive settings that feel like stepping into a memory, or a story you can't quite place," Joseph and Tomio tell me. Looking around the lower level, the softly glowing, spherical sconces in opaque glass and the unexpected, vintage-looking café curtains — two staples of Parisian style decor — look weirdly in synch with the metal-clad fitting, the lacquered stools, and the cartoony visual branding that, together, infuse the location with a subtle Y2K theme. I guess fusing more worlds into one was part of the brief.