Interview about Tsukiji Sushiiwa Tsukijiten Sushi Resutaurant, winner of the A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award 2024
Tsukiji Sushiiwa Tsukijiten was design in Tsukiji Tokyo, neighbor of former central fish market. Since sushi is now a days known as a world wide cuisine, The goal of this project was to design a sophisticated space which can be passed on to the future, a place where people can enjoy chef's traditional skills and sushi etiquette of Edomae sushi. The essence of Edomae sushi is to maximize the potential of fresh seafood through minimal hand work by the chef. Therefore focused on designing the sushi counter, so that the fresh seafood and chef's skills will stand out.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsEdomae sushi was originally eaten standing at street corner stalls, but as time went on, restaurants began to pursue more sophisticated equipment and customer comfort. However, in order to pass on the tradition, the essence remains the same: serving customers with high-quality sushi and making them happy.Therefore, the challenge for this project was to integrate and design equipment that could manage and provide high-quality sushi, support the chef's behavior and staff response, and create a space where customers could spend a comfortable time.Among the challenges, adjusting the height of the viewpoints of customers, chefs, and staff was an important issue. This is because in Japan, respect and hospitality towards guests is based on the idea of communicating and responding in a way that suits the guest, and when a customer is seated in a tatami room, the staff sit at eye level so that they can communicate and respond accordingly. We will take action.Based on these ideas and customs, we have developed technical solutions such as waterproofing the chef's kitchen floor and installing drainage pipes so that the chef can serve customers comfortably while seated at the sushi counter at eye level. Above, we adjusted and raised the floor level on the customer side.The design of this project is not a decoration or statement, but rather a design that subconsciously enables traditional thoughts and behaviors and allows them to be inherited.
Even in Japan, it is common for sushi restaurants to use a glass showcase with refrigerant pipes in a strong stainless steel frame placed on the counter. On the other hand, privately owned sushi restaurants store seafood along with ice in old-fashioned wooden boxes, and there is no functional problem in managing seafood ingredients.However, this project also gave high priority to the customer's perspective. As a result, a specially designed, highly transparent frameless glass showcase was integrated into a cohesive and intimate sushi counter that eliminates noise from the customer's view.
The texture created by each material and the finishing techniques of the craftsmen is extremely excellent, and the space has been integrated with modern equipment to create a one-of-a-kind space. This sophisticated space plays an important role in guaranteeing the authenticity of the Edomae sushi served at this restaurant.
First, it was important to share with the client the historical evolution of Edomae sushi and what kind of restaurant style would be appropriate for the future.The actual staff etiquette and facility equipment were complex, but through prototyping we discovered that rather than dealing with them in a complicated way, we could simplify them and have a higher possibility of tolerance. Ta.The discoveries we made during this process about the chef's behavior at the sushi counter and the customer's perspective were extremely helpful in the specific design stage, including selecting materials, setting dimensions, and lighting plans.
Tsukiji Sushiiwa was located close to the former Tokyo Central Fish Market, and was also located right in front of the historic Tsukiji Honganji Temple.However, no one could have predicted what the cityscape would look like after the Tokyo Central Fish Market was relocated for the Tokyo Olympics 2020.Based on this historical trend, this project also aimed to pass on the townscape of the Tsukiji area to the future. Plastered walls, window lattices, and Japanese paper shoji screens were adopted as landscape elements for the townscape that will be inherited.
In fact, the tatami room is often used for business meetings and families, so it was necessary to create a private and quiet space. On the other hand, the counter seats needed to be an intimate and open space where people could enjoy interaction with the chef and the customers at the counter, and the table seats needed to be a casual space where visitors could feel at ease.When designing this space, it was important to create a well-balanced layout that would allow each customer to enjoy sushi in their own diverse styles.In addition, since the staff will respond to each customer's purpose and sitting style, it was important to have a functional design that would not cause stress or waste to the staff.
While it is important for the sushi counter to showcase the fresh seafood and the chef's skills, it was most important to design a sushi counter that integrates into a space that makes the customers feel like one.In order to achieve these goals, I tried to provide sufficient functionality and eliminate waste. This meant focusing on carefully selected materials and thoughtful dimensional design.In addition, a proper lighting plan was essential. Like the stage where actors or dancers perform, like the glass cases in jewelry shops and patisseries that display jewelry and chocolates, and so that the audience can enjoy a comfortable time... It was designed with the underlying philosophy in mind.
Even in Japan, there are many sushi restaurants that are efficient in terms of management and convenient for cooking, but there are not many that are well-balanced and integrated with customer comfort in mind.I believe the secret to my success is my design method, which involves first sharing the challenges faced by the chef, diner, and customer, and then carefully solving each problem one by one through design.
Although Japanese cuisine was born from ingredients and cooking methods that are unique to Japan, I believe that a flexible approach to ingredients and cooking methods will remain effective even as we develop globally.In the design field as well, I believe that essential designs that flexibly solve and integrate situations and problems will be needed in the future, rather than sticking to traditional styles.
To achieve visual clarity, I simplified the components and organized the functionality.To give you an easy-to-understand example, I designed a box for storing seafood, a box for seaweed, and cooking utensils such as cutting boards all made of hinoki cypress, the same material used for sushi counters.I also arranged for cooking that is not directly related to nigiri sushi to be done in the backyard kitchen.It was also important to design effective lighting so that each element would have an appropriate presence on the sushi stage.
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