We moved away from the traditional idea of a Japanese restaurant and revealed the kitchen and activity to the street, said the architects in a recent post on ArchDaily spotlighting the restaurant in its weblog. |
The design needed to be engaging because it is tucked away at the dead end of an alleyway in the Japanese area of the City on Le Thanh Ton St, the post continued. |
In a typical Japanese restaurant, one will pass through a small entrance in an unassuming façade and enter another world on the inside. |
In contrast, we tried to maximise the connection with the street by bringing seating to the front façade and increasing the glazed area. |
As you walk up the entry stairs to the two tall sliding doors, you can see diners upstairs enjoying their meal as they face the alleyway. |
The original two-storey building has been filled with platforms to create three levels of seating spaces, to stack as much activity near the entry as possible and to create a connection with the kitchen below. |
To create a vertical connection and sense of volume, we hollowed out the front half of the building to connect the platform levels and the rafters of the roof above. |
From different seating positions you can see the flames, hear the activity around you and smell the charcoal cooking below. |
The back of the restaurant offers more typical Japanese restaurant spaces. |
By layering the brick and rafter textures of the existing building with concrete and timber, we aimed to achieve a warm rich space, bringing a refreshing new experience of Japanese food in Vietnam |
