TORA-NO-ANA / restaurant design / private client

Design for the fourth shop of a Korean Restaurant. The fact that this place, in contrast to the already existing three shops, is a freestanding house facing to the street, gives the restaurant a new face. The restaurant is located in an industrial zone that recently has become dotted with young people's fashion boutiques, near Meguro-river. Since the number of customer seats is limited to the available space, the restaurant part is not a closed space, but connected to the street, with the opportunity to open the facade. Seen through the layers from the front yard, on the same level with the public traffic, through the interior, to the back yard, the space appears shallow and airy. The floor is layered with bricks from Korea that had been dead stock for years. The roof of the restaurant part is made of Japanese pampas grass.

From the two concrete boxes, (one small in the front left with toilets and machine room, the second one on the right in the rear), an H-shaped steel beam stretches like an object, resting on slender square pipe posts. The illumination of the interior is installed at the ceiling and spreads even white light to the street, where passers by attracted to the activity in the interior. The surface of the big concrete box has a rough texture finish that looks very massive or light at daylight, depending on the shade. Up lighting in the evening makes it look like a shady screen by that it becomes a landmark. The small concrete box facing the street, however is even like canvas ready to be painted by an artist.