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Introduction

Contemporary Restaurant

Design in Japan

There is no large city in the world in which a Japanese restaurant cannot be found. In New York, London, Paris, Beijing, and even in Cairo, Japanese dishes such as sushi, yakitori, tempura, and shabu-shabu are available. The popularity of Japanese food is in part due to its reputation as a healthy alternative and also owes something to the atmosphere of refinement for which Japanese dining is well known Far from being a passing fad, Japanese cookery is now an established item on the menu of famous international cuisine.

In Japan itself, new trends in food and in dining itself are constantly emerging. Despite the recession, many restaurants in Japan enjoy full bookings three or four months in advance due to the popularity of the menu and to the innovative design that marks the restaurants themselves.

Historically, the Japanese have always been quick to introduce new tastes into their daily meals. Uniquely, the typical Japanese diet includes dishes taken from the menu of nations as varied as France, Italy, China and various parts of Africa. The traditions of Japanese cookery are alive and well, but there is a real curiosity about food and willingness to try something new This outgoing approach to food has had a direct and profound influence on the work of restaurant designers in Japan, who are themselves always looking for a more innovative, exciting approach to designing dining spaces.

Sushi restaurants are traditionally designed so that diners face the chef across a counter A new style of sushi restaurant has appeared in recent years, however, in which diners are seated on sofas and enjoy wine, rather than the conventional sake, with their sushi. Some regard this approach to the sushi restaurant as rather precious, but it has caught on with younger diners who are eager to try new things.

The younger generation of Japanese have been brought up surrounded by elements of Western culture. Though they feel a real attachment to Japanese food, they appreciate innovation in both the dishes on the menu and the design of the restaurants they patronize. Since the 1990s, the Japanese food service industry has depended on members of this generation, with their European sense of dining out as entertainment, refined palates, and good eye for restaurant design.

The new style of restaurants has been created for the most part by designers who are a part of the same generation as the diners among whom these establishments are popular. An adventurous approach to design and the use of traditional Japanese styles and materials in innovative settings and combinations has created a revolutionary new school of restaurant design.

Designers today have produced restaurants that offer thrills, sumptuousness, and surprises, but also provide a sense of nostalgia and a relaxing setting. A willingness to combine high tech and modern materials with traditional ones means that the latest designs offer a new take on the forms of the past. In the 1980s, when many of the designers who are now at their peak were beginning their careers, changes were sweeping through the Japanese food service industry. The years of the Dubble economy saw a rapid expansion in the scale of the industry, whilst youngsters who once would not have been able to afford to eat in the best restaurants were setting the trends by seeking out the latest fashionable spot. It was during this period that many of the themes still being explored by Japanese chefs and restaurant designers first emerged.

The wall and partition of this restaurant, Kushi no Bou. are plastered with earth using a traditional Japanese technique. Designer Yokoi skilfully uses traditional materials to hide modern fittings, such as the lighting equipment in the ceiling, which is covered with delicately woven bamboo net.

In this small Japanese restaurant, Murata Mitsui, the walls of the main dining room are covered with 3,500 wooden sake measures to interesting effect.

By the end of the 1990s, the styles that first appeared in the decade before were established as the standard for restaurant cuisine and design. This development marks the first time that restaurants in Japan have really set their own standards, rather than slavishly following trends prevalent in the West, by aiming to please the palate and design sense of the average Japanese diner.

There are three main types of restaurant that are representative of this new generation of dining establishments. The first part of the book illustrates one popular style, which employs new materials in a traditional context. Acrylic resin boards used in fittings or for the ceiling, plastic sheeting for the walls, fiber-optic lighting, rough fabric with stainless steel woven into it used as a wall covering these are some of the synthetic materials that are being used in what are otherwise conventional dining spaces.

One example of this approach can be seen in a restaurant in central Tokyo. This establishment, based on the traditional teahouse, features acrylic resin used as a material for shelving, the rails in which the fusuma sliding doors are set and as a casing for the posts scattered throughout the space. This element of transparency allows light to filter into the space from outside. The effect overall is, however a traditional one that follows many of the conventional forms of teahouse design. The location of this establishment and the use of innovative materials has made this a popular spot with both tourists visiting from abroad and local office workers.

The combination of new materials and traditional style can lend an element of surprise and excitement to a space. In a high class restaurant on the top floor of one Tokyo nigh rise, the designer has placed a traditional tsukubai (stone basin) within a large pool of water made from clear resin. The tsukubai brings to mind the smaller version that appears outside the entrance to many traditional teahouses to give guests an opportunity to wash their hands before passing inside. Lights sets below the water draw attention to the uneven surface of the tsukubai, whose shadow is cast on the walls of the pool. The walls facing this pool are made in the hanchiku style, with white mortar highlighting the interstices between individual stones. The effect overall is one of contrast between rough traditional materials and smooth modern ones, yet this contrast serves to set off both old and new elements.

Another approach that is found in many of today's restaurants is one in which simple materials such as Wood, paper, and packed earth are used in innovative ways to give a contemporary feeling to a dining space while adding warmth and harkening back to an earner age when these materials were the basic building blocks of Japanese construction.

The antique furniture and old hearth set in the floor sharply contrasts with the modern bar in this Japanese tavern Negiya Heikichi.

Sometimes technology makes it possible for traditional materials to be used in an entirely new way Examples include the use of washi as a wall covering, in flooring, lampshades, and other unusual places to give a contemporary feeling to this long used material. Washi is sturdier than the kind of paper that is commonly used fo^r writing, but it is vulnerable to heat This led one designer to use fiber optic lighting, which does not emit heat, for a restaurant in which washi was extensively used.

A contemporary feeling is sometimes produced by the innovative remodeling of an old building In the Gion quarter of Kyoto, a number of designers have faced the challenge of refitting classic style buildings in what is an architectural conservation area. This makes for a tight budget, with much of the money in such remodeling projects going towards replacing out-of-date equipment and fixtures. One designer who remodeled an old inn in Kyoto brought it back to life as a contemporary restaurant despite the low budget, leaving many of the more attractive original features in place. The original handrails still grace the stairs, while the original transom and railing round the terrace also remain in place. Modern touches have been added in the form of such things as wall coverings, furniture, and carpeting Care has been taken to ensure that the old and new elements harmonize and produce a pleasing effect overall.

In this Korean restaurant, Lee Nang Ha, designer Koyama mixes traditional materials from various cultures; antique furniture from Korea, partitions made of old wood from the US, and earth plastered walls using a traditional Japanese technique-

It might seem easier from a design viewpoint to demolish an old building and begin afresh with something modern but some designers have risen to the challenge of bringing their vision to a traditional structure One example is in the form of a tiny old house surrounded by huge, modern buildings in the middle of Osaka. This has been remodeled using traditional Japanese materials such as kawara (roof tiles) and sake measures as design motifs. The age and diminutive size of the restaurant, rather than being a handicap, are a draw for the customers.

Another popular trend in restaurant design combines elements of Japanese design with motifs and items borrowed from abroad. Special attention has been given to Asian elements in many of these designs, creating spaces with a pan-Asian appeal that is a unique hybrid.

One designer covered the walls of a stairwell with tatami mats, normally used ^for covering the floor, hanging antique European lampshades in the same space to provide an eclectic atmosphere. In the dining-bar section of the restaurant, two enormous lamps with shades designed to resemble the thatch that covers a traditional Japanese farmhouse take pride of place on a huge dining table. One wall is covered with prints in the Chinese style, while another wall surface is covered with mirrors to open up the space and add light.

The fundamental inspiration for the design is Western, but various Asian elements add a variety and sense of fun that never fails to impress diners. This space is not then truly Western or Asian in style, but rather a concrete expression of the designer's own vision.

In another inspired design, a faux rice fields takes the place of honor in a Korean restaurant. While the rice field would seem to suggest a decidedly Asian slant, the interior of the restaurant blends features from a variety of cultures, including as it does Western furniture and a large photograph of a female nude taken by a well known New York photographer This space, which was once home to a tile warehouse, manages to bring these elements together to create an attractive environment whose whole is more than the sum of its parts.

One designer featured here suggests that he is more concerned with expressing his idea of Japan than with following traditional or contemporary conventions and focuses on selecting and combining materials that he finds beautiful and interesting.

The generation of restaurant designers now creating some of the leading work in this field all have in common a desire to express the fundamentals of Japanese architecture and design in new ways that suit today's restaurant-goers. It is very likely that the innovative techniques and solutions to complex challenges now being worked out by many of Japan's best restaurant designers will continue to attract growing attention from around the world.

The lotus is the design motif of this fashionable Chinese restaurant, Niu. The walls are illuminated in the pink of lotus flowers and the shape and color of lamp shades represent the buds.