Private Dining at Kan
Beijing-based architecture firm odd (okamoto deguchi design)’s fit-out of new Japanese restaurant Kan comprises a series of private dining rooms inspired by traditional juubako stacked lunchboxes
Design Anthology: How did you first meet the client?
Langxu Wang: The client found us through a design website where we regularly post our projects. He was searching for a studio to design his restaurant. One of our past projects, another Japanese restaurant called SORA, caught his attention and he immediately sent us an email telling us it was precisely what he wanted and asking whether there was any chance we could work together. Designing a Japanese restaurant is far more difficult than other projects, since there are countless details — such as sophisticated kitchen appliances — to consider over and above the design concept, and that requires plenty of patience and effort. We decided to meet with him first and during our very first meeting we could tell from his words that he’s a patient, sincere and passionate, and that’s when we decided to work together.
What’s unique about the building and location?
The building is located in the heart of Beijing, in the financial area. Since many international companies are based in this area, it accommodates their international employees. Though the building appears to be a grand skyscraper, there’s still a lot of green space, thanks to brilliant landscape engineering. In other words, modern buildings and nature coexist here, making it a perfect place, in our view, to open a restaurant that is well located and has beautiful views.
What was the brief to you for the project?
Our client knows that people want a wonderful dining experience, and given its location he wanted it to be a fine dining restaurant that only offers private rooms for organising business banquets. Since the restaurant is made up of private rooms only, they had to be diverse and so we designed the space with various ambiences including a traditional Japanese tatami room, chef’s area and so on.
How did you approach the project, and what design references or narrative did you try to incorporate into the space?
The client specifically wanted us to design the space in a similar way to SORA, so we strove to maintain a balance between SORA and Kan. We settled on the concept of the traditional Japanese food container juubako, which is used for particularly important events. For Kan we focused more on lighting: an extraordinary light effect is installed on the walls near the corridor, guiding patrons to find and open the wonderful juubako box.
Please tell us a little about the material choices for the space.
Traditionally, juubako are decorated using the ancient painting technique of maki-e, where metal powder and lacquer are blended together. However, to avoid visual excess we decided to replace this traditional decoration with simple glass on the facades of the ‘boxes’. In the lobby, black marble makes the lighting more prominent, while inside the rooms we used wood and stone to create a warm and comfortable ambience.
As told to / Suzy Annetta
Images / Misae Hiromatsu and Yuming Song / Ruijing Photo
