This wide shot captures the full scale of the Kam Pek Market food hall, showcasing its vibrant and cohesive industrial-retro aesthetic. The space is defined by a rhythmic ceiling of alternating warm orange and cool blue light panels. Rows of minimalist wooden chairs and simple tables create a sense of order, while the tiled floor's striped pattern adds a dynamic visual element, drawing the eye towards the food stalls and a discreet staircase at the far right.

Linehouse Transforms a Heritage Landmark in Macau into a Modern Food Market

Words by Yatzer

No. 105–109 Av. de Almeida Ribeiro, Macao, China

Commissioned to transform a 1920s heritage building in Macau's historic centre into a modern food market, Shanghai and Hong Kong-based practice Linehouse approached the project as a dialogue between preservation and renewal. While carefully retaining the building’s Art Deco façades, they completely reimagined its interiors with a pared-back, retro-industrial aesthetic that reframes the city's distinct street culture through a contemporary lens. The result is a vibrant cultural landmark showcasing Macau's culinary diversity—one that resonates with both younger audiences and international visitors.

Kam Pek Market sits at the heart of San Ma Lo: officially known as Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, the street has long served as Macau’s historic main thoroughfare, lined with a patchwork of European- and Chinese-style buildings that reflect the city’s layered identity. Built in the 1920s, the building has shifted uses over the decades, housing a casino in the 1980s and 1990s and later serving as a cultural centre. Reopened last year as a food market as part of a broader initiative to revitalise the historic core as a cultural destination, the renovated building reinforces Macau’s status as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy while contributing to the avenue’s ongoing renewal.

This image presents a lively street scene, capturing the authentic urban landscape of Macau. The street is lined with a variety of aged buildings and a profusion of colorful, vertically stacked signboards with both Chinese and Portuguese text. The warm, diffused daylight adds a nostalgic, cinematic quality to the composition, highlighting the area's rich cultural and historical layers.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

This image presents a lively street scene, capturing the authentic urban landscape of Macau. The street is lined with a variety of aged buildings and a profusion of colorful, vertically stacked signboards with both Chinese and Portuguese text. The warm, diffused daylight adds a nostalgic, cinematic quality to the composition, highlighting the area's rich cultural and historical layers.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

  • A person sits thoughtfully on a curved windowsill, bathed in the soft glow of a neo-vernacular archway. The design, by Linehouse, contrasts the matte, gridded teal tiling with the glossy, ribbed, and warmly lit arches, creating a striking blend of retro-futuristic and traditional architectural elements. The composition highlights a moment of quiet contemplation within a vibrant, textured space.

    Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

  • The entrance of the Kam Pek Market food hall, designed by Linehouse, is a vibrant spectacle of contemporary industrial design. An exposed ceiling and minimalist lighting fixtures frame a facade adorned with glowing, multi-colored neon signs that list various cuisines. The crisp, white subway tile contrasts with the dynamic light displays and a curved, tiled planter, housing lush greenery that softens the space's geometric lines.

    Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

An industrial-inspired interior features a stark contrast of materials and textures. The raw, exposed brick walls and concrete columns provide a rustic backdrop, while the polished metal ceiling and modular gray tiles introduce a modern, almost brutalist edge. Diagonal fluorescent tube lights create a graphic, artistic element on the wall, illuminating the minimalist wooden chairs and simple tables.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

This wide shot captures the full scale of the Kam Pek Market food hall, showcasing its vibrant and cohesive industrial-retro aesthetic. The space is defined by a rhythmic ceiling of alternating warm orange and cool blue light panels. Rows of minimalist wooden chairs and simple tables create a sense of order, while the tiled floor's striped pattern adds a dynamic visual element, drawing the eye towards the food stalls and a discreet staircase at the far right.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

Guided by the developer's philosophy of Preserving Tradition, Embracing the Future, Linehouse embarked on a careful restoration of the building's Art Deco façades, adorning them with luminous Chinese characters that echo the city’s neon-lit streetscape. Inside, they pursued a more audacious vision, paring the structure back to its elemental concrete and masonry bones before introducing a sequence of refined minimalist interventions characterized by crisp rectilinear forms and industrial materials such as galvanized steel, metal mesh, ceramic tiles, and concrete bricks. Drawn from the city’s laneways, the project has successfully elevated these humble through precise detailing and understated refinement.

Circulation is animated by strong geometric rhythms: striped floor tiling in green and terracotta references local storefronts and guides movement through the space, while vendor stalls are framed by steel portals with polycarbonate light boxes hovering overhead. These glowing ceiling elements, in shades of amber and aqua, inject colour and energy, serving to evoke the neon-lit vibrancy of Macau’s streets. Elsewhere, bare brick walls paired with minimalist timber seating offer moments of warmth and tactility, grounding the market’s atmosphere in material honesty.

A detailed perspective shot highlights the food hall's intricate design. A series of industrial-chic food stalls are framed by polished metal hoods and gridded tile backsplashes, each illuminated by striking vertical lights. The floor's bold, striped pattern in terracotta and off-white provides a strong sense of movement, guiding the viewer's eye along the metallic counters and beneath the vibrant, multi-colored light panels that define the ceiling's character.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

A view of the food hall highlights a series of uniform food stalls with angled, metallic hoods and white gridded tile backsplashes. The design embraces an eclectic mix of lighting, with large rectangular ceiling panels emitting a glow in varying colors of orange and blue. This vibrant and cohesive composition of materials—from the polished metal and tile to the simple wooden chairs—gives the space a sophisticated, energetic atmosphere.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

This close-up shot focuses on a detail of the food hall's signage, blending a midcentury-modern aesthetic with contemporary design. A sign with bold red Chinese characters is set against a textured, softly lit ceiling. Below, a vibrant, reversed neon sign reflects a menu, creating a layered and multi-dimensional feel. The use of polished brass and mirrored surfaces adds a touch of retro glamour to the space.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

A vibrant food hall corridor showcases a row of modernist food stalls. Each stall is capped with a colorful, illuminated ceiling panel—alternating between warm yellow and cool blue—creating a dynamic rhythm along the path. The polished stainless-steel counters and linear lights emphasize the sleek, industrial aesthetic, while the warm-toned tiled floor provides a textural contrast.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

The central "Goat Bakers" stall is part of a row of food vendors. The industrial-chic design is defined by the clean, white gridded tiles of the counter backsplash and the geometric metal framework below. The stall is illuminated by a dynamic composition of fluorescent lights and a large, glowing overhead panel that contrasts with the orange and blue ceiling lights of the adjacent stalls.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

The market unfolds over two levels, with flexible plug-and-play stalls offering an eclectic mix of cuisines—Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Thai, Taiwanese—mirroring the city’s famous culinary diversity. Communal seating areas encourage mingling, while a playful series of lighting elements, from wall-mounted strips set against raw masonry to glowing signage proclaiming “eat good, feel good”, enhance the sense of urban vibrancy.

In filtering the city’s layered identity through a modern lens, Linehouse has created not only a destination for culinary exploration but also a communal stage that reaffirms the thoroughfare that is San Ma Lo as a pivotal cultural artery in Macau. Both nostalgic and modern, the project encapsulates the dualities of a city that finds itself forever at the crossroads of negotiating between the memory of the past and today’s reinvention.

  • This image captures the interplay of light and texture in a food hall, with a strong industrial aesthetic. The ceiling's exposed pipes and wires contrast with linear fluorescent lighting. The floor is an expressive pattern of warm terracotta and cool gray stripes, leading the eye toward the food stalls. A backdrop of exposed brick complements the polished stainless steel counters and geometric framework of the stalls, creating a dynamic visual narrative.

    Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

  • A powerful composition shows an interior space defined by geometric lines. The dominant feature is a massive, grid-like window with bold red frames that serves as a backdrop, creating a graphic contrast against the urban scene outside. A modernist staircase with a wire mesh railing and a geometric light fixture on the ceiling, glowing with a warm orange hue, adds an industrial-chic layer to the seating area below.

    Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

  • A minimalist seating area with a prominent industrial feel is captured. The space is anchored by a backdrop of raw, exposed brick, complemented by concrete columns and an exposed-pipe ceiling. The atmosphere is created by a network of linear fluorescent lights on the ceiling and a series of minimalist tube pendants suspended at varying heights, illuminating the clean lines of the simple wooden chairs and tables.

    Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

This image captures an industrial-chic interior with a striking geometric cage-like structure. The composition leads the eye down a staircase, framed by mint green wire mesh and vibrant red-framed windows, creating a powerful sense of depth and perspective. A person descends the stairs, while another is visible in the background, adding a human scale to the multi-level space.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

A detailed composition highlights the intersection of raw and refined materials. A textured, untreated concrete wall and exposed brick surface provide a rustic and brutalist backdrop. This is sharply contrasted by the clean, rectilinear lines of a red-framed window and the sleek, angular lines of a metal staircase railing. Sunlight streams through the window, casting long, geometric shadows that add a sense of drama and movement.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

This close-up shot focuses on a textured wall, composed of terracotta-hued, modular tiles. Each tile features a recessed, rounded square, creating a dynamic play of light and shadow across the surface. The design is a nod to a modern brutalist or modular aesthetic, where texture and repetition are the main elements, giving the surface a sculptural quality.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

A vibrant, retro-modern bathroom features walls and floors clad in a striking pattern of vertical and horizontal stripes in warm orange, terracotta, and muted teal tiles. The design is bold and graphic, creating a playful yet organized space. A long, streamlined counter in polished stainless steel and minimalist, angular lighting fixtures contrast with the colorful tiling, adding a sleek, futuristic element.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

A close-up of a food stall facade, "Goat Bakers," showcases a refined industrial design. The stall features a clean, white grid of subway tiles, framed by a hood and countertop of polished stainless steel. Below, a geometric metal framework adds a subtle decorative element. The space is illuminated by warm, vertical fluorescent lights that flank the counter, casting a crisp glow on the textured and layered surfaces.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

A close-up of a neon sign showcases a playful, retro aesthetic. The words “eat good, feel good” glow in a warm orange script, framed by a simple oval. Above, bold blue and green neon lettering lists various dishes, creating a vibrant, layered look. The image captures the energetic and welcoming mood created by the contrasting fonts and colors, adding a lively, graphic element to the space.

Photography by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.