Box 9 clads Soho restaurant Kid in brick made from 90% waste

By Amara Osei

Every surface at Kid, from the grill to the wine room, is brick — and at least 90 per cent of it is recycled construction and demolition waste. Local studio Box 9 built the 3,300-square-foot (307-square-metre) Soho restaurant from Kenoteq's K-Briq, which requires no fossil fuel or firing to produce and releases a tenth of the carbon emissions of a traditional brick, according to Box 9.

Kid occupies a corner site in central London formed from two formerly separate units. Chef Sertaç Dirik, whose background is in his family's Mangal II restaurant, runs it as a modern take on a Turkish mangal grill.

Why brick?

The choice was partly contextual. The building's Frith Street elevation retains what Box 9 co-founder Lou Davies calls "a beautiful Victorian upper storey with distinctive brick patterns that reflect Soho's merchant-trading history", while Bateman Street has a new elevation.

"The site's two shopfronts offered an opportunity to connect their contrasting elevations through a shared design approach," Davies told Dezeen.

Brick also carries the kitchen's argument. "[Brick] has a centuries-old relationship with restaurants, kitchens and cooking with fire, forming the basis of traditional fireplaces and hearths," Davies said. "It also reflected the heritage of Turkish cooking and Sertaç's family background, while connecting to the history of the Soho building and its original brick patterns."

The studio's ambition was blunt: "We loved the idea of using brick on every surface," Davies said. "There was a raw humbleness to it: wine cellars, kitchens and grills would traditionally have been built with brick. It wasn't about fancy materials; it was about using the best material for the purpose."

How do the two halves differ?

Box 9 split the design down the corner. The Frith Street side keeps a traditional Victorian character, its upstairs brick laid in a traditional bond with a traditional joint. The Bateman Street side feels more contemporary, built in a soldier bond with a raked joint. Guests enter here through a discreet door and meet the central grill.

Upstairs on the Bateman side sits a wine room that seats 14 guests, also fully built from brick. Downstairs, Box 9 designed an open bakery that doubles as an events room, with bespoke feature tables by Jan Hendzel Studio that can be moved to reconfigure the space.

"For Kid we needed to create a completely unique restaurant that represented Sertaç," Davies said. "His personality is big, and his background is rooted in generations of cooking in Turkey and his family's cooking style, as well as how they cooked at Mangal II. All his training was in cooking with fire."

Kid joins a run of London openings, including Gundry & Ducker's French restaurant Cassette in a Grade II-listed workshop and a London pizzeria by Isern Serra. The difference here is the material ledger: an all-brick interior whose carbon cost is a fraction of the Victorian original it quotes.