Ryotei Kaikatei Annex "So-an"

3-9-21 Chuo, Fukui-shi, Fukui, Japan
2008.01
Restaurant
378.40m2

Kaika-tei is located at the centre of Fukui city of Fukui prefecture, central Japan. The restaurant has a long history and its main building is designated as a tangible cultural asset of Japan, which has long been used as a meeting place for the VIPs of the region. We were commissioned to design and build an annex to be used for a less-formal version of the restaurant, along with some refurbishment of the old restaurant.

Our idea for this annex was to design a building that can feel approachable from both inside and outside, as its two faces face the intersection. In order to avoid the sight line between the people inside and on the street, we set up a faced of lattice, made from fern pine (or Buddhist pine) tree, often used for a Japanese chopping board, because of its stable durability. The lattice itself has a good depth, so people inside the restaurant would feel the sunshine filtering through the branches of trees.

The building of this new restaurant also contributed to some revitalization of the town, which had long suffered from serious hollowization as observed in all other central districts of regional cities in Japan, due to emergence of chain supermarkets and shops in the outskirts. As part of the project to make the towns visually attractive and retrieve its energy, electric cables along the restaurant’s streets are being buried, and asphalt streets are being paved with stone. Surely the new building had further effects on the urban design of the area.