OnePlus designs Milan’s Balay to feel like a Filipino household

The meaning behind Balay – ‘home’ in Ilocano – did more for OnePlus than any moodboard. Working alongside Emanuele Abbondanza of Ascend Beyond on creative direction, and with interiors by Studio Mille, the Milan-based studio built an identity for the evening tapas spot that holds a Filipino sense of conviviality at its centre and organises every other decision around it. The visual system, the uniforms and the music played on any given night all behave like elements of a household rather than a hospitality concept. Italo-Filipino chef Ray Ibarra first imagined Balay as a wine and tapas bar with a strong link to Milan’s listening bar scene. But research quickly complicated that. “Leaning too heavily into that trend would make it extremely difficult to stand out. It would have been like opening a new pizzeria in Naples,” Aaron Capobianco, Co-founder of OnePlus, explains. The team moved away from the trend and toward what was already in Ibarra’s brief: his Filipino roots and a set of references that also reached into Japan and the United States. Listening bar elements stayed in the mix as recurring details, but they stopped carrying the concept. Holding three cultural registers together without producing a collage required a focused, single filter. “At the core of Balay, and of everyone involved in the project, there was the sense of home: of being comfortable, of ‘home away from home,’ of that apparent domestic messiness that brings authenticity and life,” Matteo Bonato, Co-founder of OnePlus, shares. Every reference was passed through that lens, which is why the identity reads as one even when its sources are many. Bonato compares the result to a sourdough starter, something that needs fresh nourishment to keep growing.