This is a sushi restaurant “Yamanaka” in Fukuoka City. In designing this project all the dictates of the Sukiya-style architecture, especially proportion and scale, were ignored. It was regarded as something like conversion of a loft into a restaurant.
The front facade is translucent glass, and a common expression of a sushi restaurant is intentionally avoided. The two-story building is reinforced concrete construction; the first floor consists of a counter, space for tables and seats, and a kitchen, and the second floor consists of a tatami guestroom, a counter with tatami seating area, and a tea-ceremony room. On the first floor the wall behind the counter is stucco-like finish, and on the opposite side are the glass wall along tables and seats and glowing ceiling panels. On the second floor the guestroom wall is Otsustyle polished finish (one of the most elaborated finishes of traditional Japanese architecture) and the ceiling is finished with Japanese paper. In the tea-ceremony room the floor and the ceiling are finished with zinc sheets. The interior is designed as simply as possible to let the materials speak for themselves.