A half-moon-shaped screen is programmed to mimic the changing colours of a sunset in this bao restaurant in Valencia, Spain, designed by local interiors firm Clap Studio.

The eatery is set in a modernist building in Valencia's Ruzafa neighbourhood and marks the first permanent outpost of Baovan – a local food truck delivering steamed Chinese bao buns, which started up during the coronavirus pandemic.

Baovan asked Clap Studio to create an interior for the restaurant that channels the company's motto of beers, beach and baos.

"Our goal was to transport the user to a beach, from where to watch the sunset and enjoy some handmade baos," Clap Studio director Angela Montagud told Dezeen. "So we created a whole experience around it."

"The shape of the space was a challenge, as we were faced with a narrow, elongated floor plan with no natural light," she added.

In a bid to turn the restaurant's lack of daylight into a positive feature, Clap Studio designed an immersive interior that makes visitors feel as if they have stumbled across a secret beach.

"In this way, it would invite the user to enter and discover the interior," Montagud said.

Diners enter the restaurant through a porch, where deep green ropes hang from the ceiling like vines in a forest.

Inside, the interior was designed to evoke a beach with one side finished in a sandy peach colour and the other in deep ocean blue. Wavy textile panels form rolling clouds overhead that filter the light.

The centrepiece of the room is a half-moon-shaped lighting panel that was programmed by local creative studio Vitamin to recreate the changing colours of a sunset over the time it takes for the restaurant to complete its dinner service.

"The interior shows a constant duality of colours that takes us in and out of the water," Montagud explained.

"On the ceiling, we recreate a blanket of clouds that brings a magical atmosphere to the interior, reflecting the lights of the sunset that is in constant movement."

A private dining area at the rear of the floor plan can seat up to ten people and was designed to create the impression of eating by moonlight.

Circular and crescent motifs that reference the shape of bao buns are repeated throughout the space from the lighting installation to the chairs, which were designed exclusively for the restaurant by Clap Studio.

Other projects by the Valencian practice include a playful children's shoe shop and a fashion store-cum-cafe in Hong Kong with stacked terracotta display plinths and celestial aluminium partitions.

The photography is by Daniel Rueda.