A guest said recently that dining in the restaurant felt like dining inside a beautiful painting,” says Joseph Losper. “I immediately thought, ‘That’s absolutely what I want you to feel.’” Losper is the co-founder of House of Baby, a London-based design studio that launched in 2022 and has since built a reputation for creating intimate, artful spaces, including Vietnamese restaurants Lai Rai in Peckham and Little Bánh Bánh on Fleet Street.
Their new refurb is the latter’s sister restaurant, Bánh Bánh in Brixton, which features warm wood-panelled walls, objects sourced on a trip through Vietnam and wall paintings by the studio’s other half, Tomio Shota.
At the launch party for Bánh Bánh, the co-founders cut striking figures: Losper is tall with a mane of curly hair; Shota is diminutive with tied-back hair and a neat moustache. They met in 2019, when Shota moved to London from Japan and, Losper says, they “quickly bonded over a shared love of design and art”.
Good taste: Tomio Shota and Joseph Losper. Top photo: the handpainted frescoes at Bánh Bánh
Shota’s background is in traditional painting and he has brought that knowledge and skill to Bánh Bánh’s interiors. “In Japan, there isn’t a boundary between painting and architecture,” he says. “I love exploring that combination.”
The duo also recently designed a new carpet for the basement of Town, Stevie Parle’s restaurant on Drury Lane. But they’re most excited about launching their first solo venture, which will see them handle not just the spatial design, but the food concept, menu and everything in between.
As Losper puts it: “We want to create a truly House of Baby space.”
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