yoshimasa tsutsumi's restaurants in chengdu draw from traditional japanese typologies

japanese architect yoshimasa tsutsumi‘s new project is located on the ground floor of shangri-la hotel, chengdu, china, with a street frontage. the venue features two essentially different restaurants with a shared kitchen — one is for the japanese-style barbecue robatayaki, the other is for kaiseki, a local meal brought in courses. here, the architects reference two traditional typologies of japanese houses — a civilian’s house and tea-room of samurai — and extract characteristic elements expanding the room into multiple layers to create a continuous space.

in the part for robatayaki, which is in the civilian typology area, yoshimasa tsutsumi referred to historical yoshijima house in gifu which has a dynamic wooden structure. first, the architects installed an aged wooden frame at the utmost height, then put the mirror on the ceiling to reflect the dynamic image with double-height wooden structure. on the wall facing the street, windows and lightboxes made of japanese paper washi are set into a checkered pattern, and the direct light raises the wooden frame elegantly.

in the part for kaiseki, the architects overlapped tilted ceilings that are a typical language of traditional tea-room. these ceilings are made of small fine louver panels set at different angles creating a moire pattern.

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edited by: maria erman | designboom