Asian Flavours: Creating Architecture for Culinary Culture 9783955532680, 9783955532673

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ASIAN FLAVOURS

Editor: Christian Schittich Authors: Naomichi Ishige, Osaka; Thomas Linkel, Stefan Stiller, Shanghai; Gin-Young Song, Zurich; Beate Tröger, Frankfurt on the Main (Projects) Editorial team: Cornelia Hellstern (Project Manager), Samay Claro, Anna Gonchar, Kai Meyer, Eva Schönbrunner Copy-editing (German edition): Cosima Frohnmaier, Munich (Projects); Katinka Johanning, Markt-Schwaben (Essay) Translation into English: Kate Cahoon, Berlin and Christina McKenna, Berlin for keiki communication, Berlin Copy-editing (English edition): Kate Cahoon, Berlin and Matthew Griffon, St. Louis, Missouri, USA for keiki communication, Berlin; Stefan Widdess, Berlin Illustrations: Ralph Donhauser Art direction and design: Christoph Kienzle, ROSE PISTOLA, Munich Production /DTP: Roswitha Siegler Reproduction: ludwig:media, Zell am See Printing and binding: Kessler Druck + Medien, Bobingen © 2015, first edition DETAIL – Institut für internationale Architektur-Dokumentation GmbH & Co. KG, Munich www.detail.de ISBN 978-3-95553-267-3 (Print) ISBN 978-3-95553-268-0 (E-Book) ISBN 978-3-95553-269-7 (Bundle) The contribution „The History of Dining in East Asian Families“ by Naomichi Ishige is taken from the Journal of Chinese Dietary Culture (2.2, 2006, pp. 1–26; original title: „East Asian Families and the Dining Table“). With kind permission by the publisher, the Foundation of Chinese Dietary Culture. This work is subject to copyright. All rights reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, recitation, reuse of illustrations and tables, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in other ways, and storage in data processing systems. Reproduction of any part of this work in individual cases, too, is only permitted within the limits of the provisions of the valid edition of the copyright law. A charge will be levied. Infringements will be subject to the penalty clauses of the copyright law. Bibliographical information published by the German National Library. The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographical data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. The FSC-certified paper used for this book is manufactured from fibres proved to originate from environmentally and socially compatibles sources.

CONTENT ASIAN CULINARY CULTURE: DIVERSE DISHES, IMPRESSIVE SPACES

PROJECTS IN EUROPE 6

ESSAYS THE DIVERSITY OF ASIAN CUISINE OF TENTS, FOOD STALLS AND RESTAURANTS – AN OVERVIEW OF FOOD CULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE ACROSS ASIA THE HISTORY OF DINING IN EAST ASIAN FAMILIES FROM TEA ROOMS TO CAFE STREETS, OR: HOW DID COFFEE END UP IN CHURCH?

12

16 24 32

PROJECTS IN ASIA

NOZOMI, VALENCIA (E)

68

TUK TUK RESTAURANT, EDINBURGH (GB)

72

PAPER & TEA SHOPS, BERLIN (D)

74

DISHOOM KING’S CROSS, LONDON (GB)

80

NAMNAM, COPENHAGEN (DK)

84

JUGETSUDO, PARIS (F)

86

MADE IN CHINA, GOTHENBURG (S)

88

PAKTA, BARCELONA (E)

92

MATSURI BOETIE, PARIS (F)

96

VIET HOA, LONDON (GB)

100

SAKE NO HANA, LONDON (GB)

104

YOJISU, AIX-EN-PROVENCE (F)

110

GRAB EVERYDAY THAI FOOD, LONDON (GB)

114

HASHI IZAKAYA & JAPANESE KITCHEN, BERLIN (D) 116

OLD STREET KOBITEH, HONGKONG (HK)

38

MURAKAMI, LONDON (GB)

120

SUZUKAKE HONTEN, FUKUOKA (J)

42

PICNIC, MUNICH (D)

124

CAFÉ KI, TOKIO (J)

44

TEA MOUNTAIN, PRAGUE (CZ)

126

SUSHI AZUMA, OSAKA (J)

48

SMITH&HSU TEEHAUS, TAIPEH (RC)

50

LONG MARCH CANTEEN I YUMCHA HEROES I GOODTIME GRILL I GLORY DUCK, BERLIN (D)

130

PLAY POT, SEOUL (ROK)

52

KAYANOYA, TOKIO (J)

56

ADDITIONAL PROJECTS

140

COFFEESMITH, SEOUL (ROK)

60

AUTHORS

142

SHYO RYU KEN, OSAKA (J)

62

PHOTO CREDITS

143

ASIAN CULINARY CULTURE: DIVERSE DISHES, IMPRESSIVE SPACES CHRISTIAN SCHITTICH

Architects often say “Let’s take a look at the Italian place” when they want to eat well in pleasant surroundings. But an Afghan, Indian or Chinese restaurant? Too exotic, too stereotyped, their spatial atmosphere too banal! Yet following a general trend, Asian eateries are becoming increasingly popular, even in our profession. Their diversity, a positive side effect of ongoing globalisation, is increasing steadily across the cities of Central Europe. There is now a growing number of authentic restaurants whose culinary quality is as impressive as the special design of their interiors. For a long time Chinese and Indian restaurants in particular were characterised by clichéd, overly ornamental, standardised decorations but there are now many more individually designed restaurants serving these types of food. Their designers often succeed in using very simple means to create unusual atmospheres, connecting them with a 6

specific culture without being merely quaint or exotic. This is true not only of high-end restaurants but also of many low-cost takeaways and these kinds of restaurants are now justifiably enjoying increased attention. Asian food deserves this growing recognition. Asia is extremely diverse and heterogeneous and its regional cuisines are just as varied. What they all have in common however, is high quality and the freshness of their food. Japanese cuisine has played a leading role among Asian cuisines in this context. Proof of this, if any is needed, is provided by its recent Michelin Guide ratings. Years ago when the country was first included in the renowned gourmet guide it promptly and enduringly ousted the former front runner France from its traditional spot at the top of the list of countries with

the most stars. Since then Tokyo has regularly clearly trumped Paris on the list of countries with the highest number of three-star restaurants. The guide’s publishers, convinced of France’s culinary dominance, were not expecting that. Although this result came as no surprise to anyone who had experienced the sophistication of Japanese cuisine, it should in all fairness be mentioned that the sheer number of eateries must partly account for the country’s excellent rating. In this ranking too, the Japanese capital with its 160,000 establishments is at the top of the list worldwide. Eating out is an essential part of life in Japan and all over Asia, where homes are sometimes too small to contain a separate kitchen. In Japan and its neighbouring countries there are restaurants on almost every corner, ranging from simple

The diversity of Asian cuisine in miniature: a traditional Korean dish

7

noodle kitchens to elegant restaurants. Anyone who has travelled in Asia will have noticed how ubiquitous food is in public life and how essential it is in private gatherings. The traveller will have many unforgettable experiences with food in Asian countries, like the delicious sushi on the Japanese island of Kyushu, which, as it turned out after the meal, was made not of fish, but of horse, in accordance with local custom. Or the informal picnic of worshippers on the carpet in the middle of the mosque after prayers in Lahore in Pakistan and the invitation to a Pashtun house in Peshawar. A hearty meal was spread out over the floor for everyone to enjoy, from the smallest child to the oldest man, or rather, only for the men. The women, who strangers are not allowed to see, had to be satisfied with leftovers later. The hospitality of nomads on the endless expanse of the Tibetan Plateau is a special memory. All day long tea made with rancid yak butter and salt simmers over the fires in the middle of their black tents. This tea is immediately offered to any unexpected and weary wanderer who turns up in their camp after several days of solitude. In drastic contrast to that was an elegant business dinner in a sea food restaurant in the northern Chinese coastal city of Dalian. Next to the more or less familiar looking fish in the many tanks all kinds of snake-like worms also swam in coloured plastic bowls, which the guest was obliged to taste, whether he wanted to or not. Unforgettable too the lively, colourful markets everywhere, all the fresh fruit and vegetables in Jaipur and Mumbai, exotic fish in Tokyo, filled dumplings in Shanghai and Seoul. Wherever you travel in Asia, you find steaming food stalls surrounded by people eating busily and often surprisingly delicious food served in nondescript eateries in seething metropolises and in sleepy country hamlets. So it is no surprise that the various regional forms of Asian cuisines have spread so quickly all over the world. 8

Top and bottom left: In Japan you often find outstanding quality food in unspectacular establishments. Bottom right: At Indian markets they’re steaming and cooking wherever you look: puris in Jaipur.

Lunch break in Korea

This book is about the right architectural settings for Asian cuisines. “Asian Flavours – Creating Architecture for Culinary Culture” presents strikingly designed restaurants in Asia and Europe that create the right setting for good food. They often develop an authentic atmosphere without overpowering it with folkloristic decorations, creating associations with their particular culture by means of sophisticated allusions. The elegant space of Kengo Kuma’s Sake no Hana in London is framed by an abstract form resembling a Japanese temple entablature and the light filtering through the thin bamboo blinds evokes traditional “sudare”. In contrast, Tuk Tuk in Edinburgh succeeds in creating links with South Asian cookshops and street culture; with its brilliant colours it is reminiscent of the motorised rickshaws in the lively cities. These examples highlight the broad scope of the projects shown in the book, which ranges from exclusive restaurants to cheerful takeaways. The book also depicts various tea shops, because elaborately prepared tea plays a special role in the culinary cultures of many Asian countries. In introductory essays various experts on Asia describe the special culinary atmosphere and explain traditions and backgrounds from a range of very different perspectives. Stefan Stiller, who has many years of experience working as a chef in Shanghai, briefly outlines the most important cuisines in Asia, ranging from Japan and China through Korea up to Southeast Asia and India, while travel journalist Thomas Linkel describes the relationships between Asia’s culinary cultures and its architecture. The ethnologist Naomichi Ishige explains traditional table manners and eating habits in Eastern Asian families and cultural scholar Gin-Young Song, who now lives in Zurich, focuses on a phenomenon in her home town: coffee culture in Seoul. 9

10

ESSAYS THE DIVERSITY OF ASIAN CUISINE

12

OF TENTS, FOOD STALLS AND RESTAURANTS - AN OVERVIEW OF FOOD CULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE ACROSS ASIA

16

THE HISTORY OF DINING IN EAST ASIAN FAMILIES

24

FROM TEA ROOMS TO CAFE STREETS, OR: HOW DID COFFEE END UP IN CHURCH?

32

11

THE DIVERSITY OF ASIAN CUISINE STEFAN STILLER

When trying to gain an overview of the various forms and styles of Asian cuisine, you soon come to one conclusion: the variety, wealth of cultures and striking differences between Asia’s diverse cuisines could not be greater. Asian cuisine even includes the Middle Eastern and South Asian countries, where Arab culinary traditions prevail. Yet when we think about what we regard as typically Asian cooking, we think mainly of South Asian and East Asian cuisines, which will be described below. Like European cuisine, Asian cuisine spans a geographic range from north to south, with the culinary traditions of China, Japan and Korea in the north and the cuisines and cultures of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and a few other countries in the south. Japan, famed and celebrated in the western world for using all kinds of raw fish, has one of the world’s most precise cuisines, one with far more to offer than sushi and sashimi. Highly detailed recipes and preparations are handed down through the generations, although Japanese chefs keep many of their recipes secret. Their choice of ingredients is legendary. The freshness and variety of their fish and seafood sets international standards, and a veritable cult has developed around the use of the best cookware and sharpest knives. Kobe beef, the superb meat of Wagyu cattle, is now served in 12

Left: Sashimi in restaurant Kandakko in Tokyo Right: Fresh fish at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo

many restaurants. It is imported all over the world from Australia, home to the largest herds of these cattle. Kaiseki, Japanese haute cuisine, is still not very well known in the West. It is the “mother” of today’s tasting menus, involving small portions served in a certain order with tea and sake in a long-established ceremony. Open kitchens with a counter at which cooks wearing grave expressions cut up the world’s freshest fish to make fine sashimi, hot teppanyaki griddles on which meat, fish, seafood and vegetables are cooked in front of enthusiastic guests, robatayaki, the art of grilling fine ingredients on skewers over the best charcoal, and

tempura, a method of frying a wide range of ingredients in extremely thin batter in the best oil: these traditional cooking styles are fundamental to many Japanese restaurants, some of which have three Michelin stars. Chilli and garlic and preparation methods utterly unlike those used in the rest of Asia predominate in Korean cuisine. The metal chopsticks Koreans use, much thinner than the Asian chopsticks common elsewhere, also strike Europeans as unusual. A table-top grill, on which guests barbecue marinated meat over glowing coals until it is crispy, is almost

Kimchi vegetables on offer at the Namdaemun Market in Seoul

mandatory in Korean cuisine. A wide range of small entrées and side dishes, served without being ordered, accompanies every meal. Koreans cook with roots and mushrooms that Europeans have never seen. Another element essential to Korean food is its cult of kimchi, a mixture of fermented cabbage and other kinds of vegetables, to name just a few of the important characteristics of the Korean palate. Kimchi is a ubiquitous element of almost every Korean meal. Most households even have a separate fridge to keep it in because other foods quickly absorb its intensive smell. It is not unlike German sauerkraut, which is also made of pickled cabbage preserved with the help of lactic acid fermentation, which is what gives it its unique flavour. Korean kimchi is traditionally made of Chinese cabbage pickled with plenty of chilli, garlic, ginger, horseradish and other kinds of vegetables. In some regions, sea food in the form of oysters, dried shrimps or fish sauce is added to it. Cabbage leaves are formed into rolls or packages and sealed in large terracotta pots for fermentation. In rural regions, the terracotta pots may be buried in the ground in winter. It is not only cabbage that is prepared in this or similar ways, but also other vegetables, including cucumbers, radishes and small white beets. In 2013, UNESCO added kimchi to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list, and there is even a kimchi museum in Seoul.

The Korean culinary tradition is currently still one of the world’s underrated cuisines, although this Asian cuisine will doubtless become popular with a wider public in future. To speak of “a” Chinese cuisine is like lumping all European cookery together into “a” European cuisine. Traditional local and regional cookery varies greatly across the vast “Middle Kingdom”. Uyghur cuisine from Xinjiang in the country’s northwest has more in common with oriental and Turkish cuisine than with Chinese. Travelling from Beijing to Shanghai and Chengdu and down

to Shenzhen and Hong Kong in the south, you discover very different foods. The different flavours and preparation methods range from rich and somewhat oily in the north through hot and very spicy in the west and down to sophisticated and delicate in the south. China is a self-contained culinary world all its own. Among the stereotypes of Chinese cuisine familiar in Germany and the western world are crispy roast duck, sweet and sour pork, and spring rolls, although these dishes are rarely served in authentic Chinese cuisine. A Chinese meal consists of many different dishes in the 13

Left: Stuffed pastries sold on the streets of Seoul Top: Dumplings being prepared at the market in Kashgar in Xinjiang

middle of the table that are shared by all the guests. When food is served does not depend on any set order, but is determined by the cooks. Whatever is ready first is served. Only rice is served at the end of a meal because it is cheap and designed to fill the stomachs of guests who have not eaten their fill from the other dishes. Hosts generally prepare far more than their guests can eat. That may seem odd to Europeans, but has to do with notions of being generous and a good host. Classic Chinese cuisine is generally divided into “eight cuisines”, the eight major culinary traditions of the regions or provinces of Anhui, Canton, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Szechuan and Zhejiang. Among the famous and authentic specialities in Chinese national 14

cuisine are the hot and spicy, quite oily dishes from the west in Szechuan, seasoned with plenty of chilli and palate-numbing Szechuan pepper. In Cantonese cuisine in the south, we find fine dim sum, small dishes that are usually steamed but can also be baked in an oven or fried, and include the most delicate dumplings and pastries. Characteristic of these dishes are delicate fillings, the finest dough made of a wide range of different ingredients and a flavour that excites even gourmets who have travelled the world. Dim sum is traditionally eaten at breakfast and lunch. In the first half of the day, the body is supposed to receive the energy it needs to have enough strength for the day, while foods with less starch and carbohydrates are usually eaten in the evening. According to the doctrine of yin and yang, which

Chinese cuisine carefully observes, certain dishes are suitable for certain times of day. Cooks should always try to strike a balance between yin and yang, which the interplay of different ingredients, spices and preparation techniques ensures. Fine sea food is another integral element of this regional cuisine because the area’s proximity to the South China Sea means that it is locally available in the best quality. Cooks in northern China cook far more substantial meals than those from the south. Northern dishes, such as dumplings with savoury fillings, the obligatory hotpot with lamb and mutton, grilled meat on skewers, and other hearty dishes, keep people in the region warm, even in the winter’s icy temperatures, which is another reason for their popularity. Central and South Asian countries have culinary traditions very different from those of Japan, Korea and China. These regions have been shaped by many influences and various colonies as well as immigrants who have left behind significant traces and helped to fashion their cuisines. Thai and Vietnamese cuisines work with a breathtaking wealth of spices and fine, subtle flavours. Thai cooks use plenty of coconut milk, lemon grass, coriander, chilli and lime. Dishes carefully balancing sweet and sour, hot and mild and soft and crispy give this cooking style its uniqueness. Thai dishes are usually light and use little fat and few milk products, so they fit in well with the country‘s hot temperatures. The culinary traditions of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are a melting pot of different styles and cultures, influenced by local climates, temperatures, spices and regional vegetables. Chinese and Indian influences are especially noticeable in these cuisines’ preparation methods and the spices they use. Curries and other hot, spicy dishes that originated in India are often eaten here. Singaporean laksa, a soup typical of the region, combines Indian spices with coconut milk, chilli, Chinese noodles, chicken and fine seafood as well as many other regional ingredients. Describing India‘s cuisine in a few sentences seems almost impossible. The country’s sheer size, its many

Red curry with duck, as prepared on the Thai islands of Ko Phi Phi Top: Spices on sale in a Mumbai market Right: Street vendors at the market in Kashgar

different languages and religions and great cultural diversity makes India a culinary cosmos all its own. Its geographical location between the Orient and East Asia and the long period it spent under British influence have shaped the country’s cuisine. Indian cooking is famed for its intense spices, huge range of curries and many vegetarian dishes. The many different religions and castes and great poverty of many people mean that meat plays only a subordinate role on the daily menu. When it is served, it is usually in the form of poultry, while pork and beef are fairly rare. Fish is available only on the coast and in big cities. Many Indian recipes are based on pulses, such as lentils and chickpeas, as sources of protein. Indian provincial cooking can be a major challenge for

the average European stomach, one best encountered after careful preparation. With Asia’s wealth of cultural and scenic diversity reflected in its culinary traditions and its endlessly fascinating multitude of flavours, a journey through the many cuisines of Asia is one of the most exciting experiences a gourmet can have. 15

OF TENTS, FOOD STALLS AND RESTAURANTS – AN OVERVIEW OF FOOD CULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE ACROSS ASIA THOMAS LINKEL

You are what you eat – and where you eat. The architecture of Mongolian tents has remained pretty much unchanged for centuries. What has always been important is that the tents, known as “ger”, can be easily put up and taken down, to allow for the herds to be followed as they move to fresh grazing areas, and that they provide protection from the extreme climatic conditions in inland steppe, desert and mountain regions. In the middle of the room is an oven used for cooking, and a flexible opening in the roof of the tent acts as a chimney. A popular Mongolian dish is “khorkhog” – lamb cooked inside a milk jug. Nothing is added apart from water; due to a lack of availability, the traditional nomadic cuisine is largely without vegetables, herbs and spices. The method used to prepare marmot, “boodog”, is also a straightforward matter. Having met with a violent death, the rodent is hollowed out and filled with hot stones, again without herbs or salt. Most nomads simply place it in a hole in the ground filled with stones, which is then covered with soil. After a few hours the meat is cooked and if you are lucky, the fur has been almost entirely scorched off. Straightforward but brilliant recipes that manage to make something out of practically nothing. The situation with the interior of a “ger” is similar: the basic components are narrow beds with drawers, a wooden chest of drawers and rugs. During meal times, everyone sits together in a circle and eats out of a large pot or a bowl. The guest receives the best piece of meat as a matter of course, which means that if it happens to be fat-tailed sheep, you can be sure to enjoy the fat tail. In contrast to the purely practical functions of nomadic architecture, the building methods of those who set16

Yak butter tea being served around the fire in a tent of Tibetan nomads at Nam Co

tled in the Asian region developed a different dynamic. Indeed, once the meals are served daily in the same place and it’s no longer purely a matter of survival, a new style begins to unfold. The transition from a hunter-gatherer to an agrarian society, the use of fire and becoming sedentary are therefore relevant factors for the development of cooking styles and a culinary culture. When the basic needs have been met, it is then possible for people to start having more far-reaching thoughts about the design of

the place where meals are taken – the room should be more than just a safe place to consume food. It is important to remember that the word “cuisine” has at least two different meanings in many languages. In some languages, it refers both to the room where cooking takes place, and also the different ways in which food is prepared according to regional and social influences. Making a distinction between nutrition and food is also an important evolutionary step, and one which has

Right: Chinese noodle preparation Bottom left: Head chef Wayne Liu of Keng Eng Kee Seafood pub in Singapore Bottom right: The cook at Kwan Kee Bamboo Noodle in Hong Kong kneads the noodle dough with a large bamboo log in the traditional way.

been taken by humans and not by animals, who continue to choose their diet instinctively. This finding can be supported by the following three points: People determine what they consider to be edible from the available food supply based on cultural guidelines. While in some parts of Asia, dishes with dog or snake can be found on the menu, in Europe this is rejected for cultural reasons, although in terms of nutrition it wouldn’t be a problem. Secondly, humans have developed elaborate cultural practices of cultivation, harvesting, processing and cooking. For the vast majority of foods this is actually unnecessary from a nutritional perspective, the techniques are used solely to change and to improve their taste. In particular, the elements of taste and food preparation are shaped by culture. Third, humans have created social customs and rules around food intake. While satisfying the human need for nourishment is something very natural, it is regulated culturally and socially. This is reflected in the varyingly complex rules relating to different foods and drinks. Like all social and cultural characteristics, considerable differences can be discerned between the various kinds of cuisines, and there is not just one, but rather a multiplicity of different types of cuisine that are practiced in set environments and are, above all, geographically and socially determined. Furthermore, the type of cuisine doesn’t just influence the taste of foods, it also has social, regional and cultural impacts. It can even influence social structures by shaping the farming sector, the methods of production and the surrounding geography, which is the case when land previously unused for agriculture is cultivated, for example.

Food and culinary culture can be seen both as a way of a building a community within a certain cultural identity, and on the other hand, as a delimitation from other cultures and classes. Indeed, it is undeniable that one’s upbringing, in terms of background and class, brings with it certain culinary traditions. The class of bureaucrats and educated people, the imperial court and the aristocracy all played a significant role in influencing food culture throughout the

centuries, particularly in China and Japan, where, in a similar way to the transformation from nomadism to sedentary living, a certain cultural dynamic unfolded around the emergence of larger settlements and cities, which could only be observed in rural areas much later and to a lesser extent. Thus, in regions where agriculture played a key role, culinary traditions were less differentiated than in areas with more rapidly diversifying economic systems. In addition, the upper classes 17

saw their particular choice of meals and drinks as an effective way of documenting their status and group identity. Despite being initially oriented towards courtly and middle-class norms, this was followed by certain developments in the culinary culture in Asian cities; in urban agglomerations, this was a result of the increasing separation of working life and living areas during industrialisation and by changes in how meals were consumed, which was dictated by working hours and breaks, as well as the lack of space in many dwellings and subsequent lack of cooking areas. Thus, for the working population, a culinary culture of fast food stands emerged and spread throughout all parts of Asia. It takes place on the street, in traffic junctions, close to offices and factories, and without architecture in the traditional sense. 18

Top left: The speciality of the Sun Kau Kee Noodle Shop in Hong Kong is traditional Congee soup served very hot. Top centre: Tibet Steak House in Tibet’s capital city of Lhasa Top right: Row after row of food stalls along Ameyoko street in Tokyo. Bottom: Market women converse at the night market in Krabi, Thailand.

People are born into a certain culture. This culture becomes part of their identity and reflects where they come from, their job, their class and their food culture. One of the most important places where socialisation occurs is where we eat our meals – here, it isn’t just table manners that are taught and learned, values are also passed on, conversations are had, and aesthetic and culinary tastes are formed. Just like architecture and language (and at the micro level, dialect) culinary traditions play a major role in a larger, more complex and dynamic structure. In combination with geography, they can create a regional character within a certain culture. Regional characteristics have developed in parallel to the design of rooms and food culture. The emergence of kinds of cuisine typical for certain regions, as well as the way we eat and where we eat, also gives rise to regional architecture, which is in turn shaped not only by our inevitable need for a place to be, but also by our religion and values, by tradition, hierarchies and class, as well as climatic and local conditions. Both aspects – the culinary tradition and the rooms in which food is consumed – give rise to and are part of human culture. In the next step, the transformation of local cuisine and architecture was complete, in the sense that it was no longer primarily focused on individual homes and regions, but extended into public places, where people came together in the cities along major trade routes, as travellers or to be in the company of others. The culture of each region was reflected in the caravanserais, kitchens, food courts and the classic eateries. Of course, the early “restaurants” were shaped by local traditions, both in terms of the dishes they served and their architecture. It wasn’t until later that people began to cook and eat foods from far-away countries in the appropriate ambiance. Presumably, this came about so that locals could be presented with strange cultures and foods, but also as venues were established along the long trading routes featuring foreign dishes and architecture, to give the passing merchants and travellers a taste and a sense of home. Today, as a result of globalisation, almost every kind of cuisine can be found everywhere, at least in larger cities and urban centres. Getting pad thai from the place around the corner is just as much a part of our lives as sauerbraten, sashimi and pizza.

Dumplings being prepared at the market in Kashgar, Xinjiang

The interior design of restaurants often picks up on these cultural influences and tries to implement them with varying degrees of success. Many outstanding examples can be found in this book. It features spatial concepts that reflect more than just the culture behind the foods presented, they draw on a refined form language integrated into the overall cultural context. But where to start, and where to end? Asian food cultures are so diverse that whole books have been written about each different kind. The differences between Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian culinary styles are considerable. Of particular note is the Chinese culinary tradition, which has been propagated in Southeast Asia for over 250 years by Chinese living overseas and continues to develop in conjunction with regional cooking traditions. This is particularly apparent in the citystate of Singapore, where the Peranakan

culture has emerged from the combination of Malay and Chinese ways of living. The intercultural connection between the Malay women and Chinese men, who were usually merchants or sailors, gave rise to a distinct culture with a particular style of architecture, living and cooking, which even today remains most pronounced in the Katong district. It’s enjoyable to roam though the district and see the colourful, two-storey houses with small front gardens and window shutters that line the streets. On the corner, women with shopping baskets are chatting, and next door at Nancy’s Kitchen, run by the “Classic Mrs Singapore 2006”, one of the finest laksa soups to be found in the city is cooking in large pots. A cook is using a wooden hammer on a black nut, called “buah keluak”, which is frequently utilised in Peranakan cuisine. Next to him is a large pot filled with “rempah”, a homemade spice paste that will serve as the basis for most of his dishes. 19

Top left and below: Huang Ting restaurant in Beijing serves classic Cantonese dishes. Top right: Dim sum steamed in bamboo baskets, Hong Kong

In the next street Malay coffee, kopi, is being served in various forms alongside breakfast in the traditional Chin Mee Chin Confectionery coffee house. It is accompanied by kaya toast, butter, jam and boiled eggs spiced in the traditional Chinese fashion – with soy sauce. Traditional architecture was used by the Chinese as a means of expressing their philosophy. That rules form a strict order is a basic principle of Chinese thought, which is largely reflected in their architecture. It is less functional and less individual than European architecture. At the heart of this mind set is heaven, and on earth the emperor, as the intermediary between heavenly and earthly matters. Time moved around a central point. This was the centre of power, the respective capital city the centre of the Chinese empire and the imperial palace in its rightful place in the middle of the city. Two basic elements of traditional Chinese architecture are the rectangle and the circle. The changes in Chinese architecture throughout the centuries have been so minimal that it is difficult to determine styles and epochs, whereas it is comparatively easy to attribute architectural styles in Europe to a particular time frame. 20

According to Chinese tradition, the four sides of the rectangle correspond with the cardinal points and the four seasons. The circle, conversely, has neither a beginning nor an end, and thus stands for infinity – one reason why most Chinese restaurants feature round tables, upon which a turntable is placed with the various dishes from which everyone can eat. A round table is also advantageous because everyone can reach the dishes easily, and it allows for better communication,

which assists with the desired socialising during business meals. Ordering single dishes like in Central Europe is uncommon. Generally several dishes come at the same time and fixed set menus are unusual; instead, the transitions are more fluid. The turntable rotates diligently, so that everyone can help themselves to the minimum of six or seven dishes. For Chinese hosts, it is also impor-

Left: Foldable tea pavilion by architect Kazuhiro Yajima, Yoshikawa Above and below: Utensils for the tea ceremony: Matcha cup, teaspoon (chashaku) and tea whisk (chasen) for whisking the finely ground powder of the green tea (matcha)

tant that something is left over at the end – a good host always orders much more than is necessary. Because Chinese restaurants are often somewhat louder than those in continental Europe, many of the better restaurants now have side rooms where guests can dine undisturbed. To drink a toast at the table and have a round of clinking glasses – which are also frequently refilled – makes for a lively time. Aside from the round table, the design of the room con-

tinues to play a subordinate role, which makes it possible to concentrate entirely on the meals and the conversation, which are both essential for Chinese culture. Yet, this is also changing, and subsequently restaurants in the People’s Republic have begun to prove in more recent times that it is indeed possible to combine traditional Chinese interior design elements, functionality, modernity and outstanding cuisine. Huang Ting in

Beijing is a positive example. With its brick walls, heavy wooden doors and pine flooring taken from derelict houses in the Shanxi province, as well as antique furniture from the Qing dynasty, the guests are surrounded by the classic hutong design. They are greeted at the entrance of the restaurant in front of a wooden, double-leaf door, which is typical for hutong houses. The outfits of the staff are inspired by the classic red silk ruqun, and the food is simply outstanding. 21

no unnecessary gesture should disrupt the harmony. All Japanese teahouses are connected by a number of stylistic characteristics. They are usually located in a small garden, often with a pond. There is a zigzagshaped path to the tearoom, which consists of two rooms – one for preparing the tea, and one where the actual ceremony takes place. For the exterior, mainly cedar wood and bamboo is used, with the doors and windows featuring semi-transparent Japanese paper. The floor is covered with tatami mats, and the main room is empty, apart from one shelf, upon which the objects required for the tea ceremony can be found, and the small stove to heat the water.

Old man in front of his fire in a farmhouse in the village of Ogimachi, Japan

In Europe, too, Chinese restaurants experiment with traditional design elements. In the restaurant Fei Scho in Munich, Chinese paper lanterns hang from the ceiling, and the typical bamboo baskets, used to steam dim sum, are piled picturesquely in towers. In China, the Bamboo Courtyard Teahouse in Yangzhou is a spectacular case, with decorative wall coverings made from bamboo, in line with the construction methods of the Southern Chinese. Something that the Japanese have adapted from the Chinese and continued to develop is tea culture. In China, tea was used primarily as medicine. Traditions from the Yangtze valley suggest that inhabitants already had a primitive form of drinking tea in the 4th century. From the 8th century onwards, the Tang dynasty developed the tea ceremony as an independent part of their culture. Some sources report that tea was brought to Japan by Chinese ambassadors at around the same time and was first drunk at the impe22

rial court and by monks. As of the 15th century, the tea culture blossomed as a part of Japanese aesthetics. It was about the appreciation of beauty in the midst of a mundane life and was brought to life, not by simply revealing “beauty”, but also by covering it up so that it can then be discovered. Throughout the centuries, the tea culture, as part of the Zen philosophy, became influential in architecture, lifestyle habits, art and culinary culture and has even made its way into the language. According to a Japanese expression, someone who gives in to their unbridled feelings has “too much tea in them”. “Chashitsu” means “tea huts” and is subsequently the name for tea rooms, but it can also be more freely and poetically translated as “dwellings of fantasy”. The teahouse can be seen as a refuge of serenity in the midst of the turmoil and shortcomings of the world. No colour, no ornament should disturb the mood of the room, no sound should drown out the glasses being filled, and

The tradition of tea culture has influenced Japanese architecture for centuries. The emptiness and pure functionality of the tearoom is also reflected in the design of many Japanese living spaces, hotels and restaurants, such as Sushi Azuma or Café Ki. The ideas were also passed on in the way foods are prepared and presented, which can be seen in miniature in the form of bento boxes. The special aesthetic of the bento is creatively reflected in the shopfront design of Pakta in Barcelona, with its doorway and display window. Functionality also determines that the only room with heating is to be used for meals, for example, in the traditional gasshō-zukuri style farmers’ houses in the villages of Ogimachi, recognised as UNESCO world cultural heritage sites. In the middle of the room is a recessed, rectangular fire pit, which was once used for cooking and its smoke to cure foods. Today, it serves as a source of heat, as well as to make tea. The floor of the room is covered by tatami mats, and the walls are partially composed of traditional shoji and fusuma sliding doors. This very airy construction method is somewhat surprising as it results in an unpleasant cold and dampness, given that many of the houses were built in the middle of rice fields, which are flooded for a considerable part of the year. Houses on stilts with large verandas, up to two metres above the ground, are also built by various ethnic groups in Laos, and can be found in the neighbouring countries of Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. In the agrarian society of Laos, as in other regional areas of Southeast Asia, the veranda is a central part of the house where work and communication takes place.

Left: Breakfast food stall on a street in the Baochao Hutong district of Beijing Top: Street vendors at the Dongdaemun night market in Seoul

Larger farms in the lowlands of Laos are made up of several wooden houses with walls of woven bamboo or thin wood, many with roofs covered with straw or bamboo. The majority of the lowland inhabitants do not eat in the kitchen. During bad weather, meals are taken in a plain room laid out with bamboo mats, but otherwise the family gathers on the veranda. They sit around a low rattan table covered with banana leaves and eat together out of pots or bowls. The tradition of serving dishes on banana leaves has also been adopted by many restaurants and food stalls in the cities. While for the majority of the population a visit to a restaurant would be too expensive, countless street food stalls ensure that less wealthy city dwellers can afford freshly prepared meals. Like in the rest of the South-east Asian countries, the typical street stand consists of a kitchen trolley that can be driven or pushed and simple gas cookers, upon

which soups are simmered or fresh ingredients fried in a wok. The guests sit on plastic stools, which are around 30 centimetres high, and spoon away at their meals on the side of the busy streets and crossings. It’s fast, fresh and very good value. The fact that you often might find yourself sitting at the height of the exhaust pipes and amongst the deafening noise of the cars is essentially a crucial part of this kind of Asian fast food. It is challenging, if not impossible, to reflect this atmosphere in the design of a restaurant. In London, however, this kind of seating and tables have managed to find their way into restaurants like GRAB Thai Street Kitchen or VIET HOA – MESS; although in some cases, the seats have partially been given back-rests for European body shapes and eating habits, like in Tuk Tuk in Edinburgh. For those who engage with the topic of architecture and culinary culture for a longer period of time, it becomes apparent that food is a crucial part of our built-up world. Town planners in Asia recognise this

and use this combination continually as an opportunity for urban development. The creation of the Singaporean Hawker Center with hundreds of food stalls is a prime example. In certain, newly created suburbs, they are the heart of the building developments, a precursor being the Tiong Bahru quarter that came about in the fifties. Several food courts in Taiwan and China have also adopted this idea. As a result of globalisation, it is possible to experience regional cuisines and culinary cultures throughout the world. Architects and interior designers have managed to create a successful concept for a restaurant when guests can be immersed, not only in the gastronomical culture, but in the history, customs and traditions of a country or region during their visit. Food can be a feast for your eyes, and also for your mind. Horizons are expanded, and only then is it possible to confirm what Goethe once said, that “no pleasure is fleeting, for the impression it leaves behind is permanent”. 23

THE HISTORY OF DINING IN EAST ASIAN FAMILIES NAOMICHI ISHIGE

DINING PATTERNS Before discussing the East Asian dining table, I would first like to examine briefly the main types of meal patterns throughout the world. In this context “meal pattern” means the “model way of eating” in each culture. This comprises two aspects: “manners” at the dining table, and “physical equipment and devices”, which together influence behaviours and actions at the dining table. A discussion of manners would be too extensive, because each culture throughout the world has a wide range of manners specific to that society. In contrast, there are a limited number of types of physical equipment used for eating. It would be possible to apply the following basic conditions as standards to classify how different cultures around the world organise or conduct a meal: Do we use a dining table? Do we sit on the floor or on a chair? Do we eat with our hands or use cutlery? Does everyone get their own plate of food or do we pile all the food in a communal bowl? In the following section, I will attempt to classify this physical equipment.

ATTITUDE AND UTENSILS Floors and chairs Today, we do not know of any society where the family eats while standing or lying down during regular mealtime. Normally, meals are eaten while seated, with knees tucked under one’s bottom on the floor (“sitdown dining”) or seated on furniture such as a chair or bench (“seated dining”). 24

Eating utensils Today approximately 40 % of the world’s population eat with their hands. Those who use chopsticks and those who use knives, forks and spoons are estimated to be approximately 30 % each. Chopsticks originated from China during the Warring States period (ca. 475–221 BCE), and were used in combination with spoons. From the early period up to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE), rice as the staple food was eaten with spoons, while chopsticks were used for other food.1 During the Han dynasty (ca. 206 BCE-220 CE), Chinese officials stationed at the Lelang Commandery on the Korean Peninsula probably used chopsticks, but the definitive evidence of use by the Korean people are the bronze chopsticks and spoons discovered in the tomb of King Muryeong of Baekje, which was built around 522 CE. Since then, people on the Korean Peninsula used a combination of chopsticks and spoons. Chopsticks discovered at archaeological sites in Japan date from the end of the 7th century, and it was during the 8th century that the use of chopsticks for dining became common among the populace.2 In the Nara and Heian periods, when Chinese cultural influence was at its height in the Japanese imperial courts, both chopsticks and spoons were used at public banquets, but the use of spoons for eating was not popular with the common people. Soon after, the upper classes also stopped using spoons, and traditional Japanese food came to be eaten using chopsticks only.

Noodle soup with shrimp at the Wing Wah Wonton Noodle Shop in Hong Kong

TYPES OF TABLE SETTINGS AND MEAL FORMATS Spatial development and sequential order Table setting methods, or the manner in which meals are presented, can be broadly classified into “spatial development” and “sequential order”. Spatial develop-

ment is a method of table setting in which all the food is laid out at once in front of the diners. In sequential order dining, each new dish is brought out after the previous dish has been eaten; much like the full course dinner consisting of several dishes presented sequentially that developed in modern Europe. Individuality and communality practice “Individuality” is a practice whereby food is distributed prior to the meal in individual serving wares. “Communality” is another practice that has everyone sit around huge communal serving dishes, and the participants of the meal eat by extending their hands into the same dishes and jars. In some societies where daily meals were communal, individual table settings were provided during public events and ceremonial meals. Meals served at ceremonies had to follow a strict order or specific ritual timing, and so individual settings used could eliminate any interference during the distribution of food. The traditional format for meals in Japan is clearly made up of individual portions. Even in daily family dining, every type of food is served in individual dishes, and these small individual servings of food appear as individual and potable dining trays, which are called “zen”, lined up on the floor. Sticking your chopsticks into other people’s plates to get food is considered extremely impolite. This idea can be correlated to notions of ritual cleanliness or impurity in Shinto thought, the indigenous Japanese religion. Eating food that has come into contact with the mouths of other people risks carrying the ritual impurity of others into your own body, and thus becoming ritually contaminated. To prevent this, contact via food, chopsticks and tableware is carefully avoided. For family meals, each person has their personal set of chopsticks, a rice bowl and a soup bowl; and these personal items are not shared even among members of the same family.

Traditional evening meal of the farmers of Ogimachi village in Japan

Top: Tofu dish at restaurant Nuruhan in Tokyo’s Asakusa district Bottom: Ready-made meals at the Namdaemun Market in Seoul

As will be discussed later, the traditional serving method within Yangban families, the upper class during the Korean imperial era, ensured that the head of the family had their own place setting or ate at a table set for one, thereby utilising the individual meal format. When meals were taken at a dining table set for two or a circular communal dining table set for several members of the same family of the same sex or generation, rice and soup were served in individual bowls, but other foods were eaten from communal dishes. In this case, meal formats were a mixture of individual and communal settings. 25

TABLE 1 Sit-down

seated

A C E

B D F

Individual

Communal

1 3

2 4

Hands Chopsticks (spoons) Knives, forks and spoons

TABLE 2

Spatial development Sequential

TABLE 3

1 2 3 4

A

B

C

D

E

F

A1 A2 A3 A4

B1 B2 B3 B4

C1 C2 C3 C4

D1 D2 D3 D4

E1 E2 E3 E4

F1 F2 F3 F4

Table 1: Dining etiquette and utensils Table 2: Serving methods Table 3: Dining formats

THE MATRIX OF DINING FORMATS Table 1 is a matrix that indicates postures such as “sit-down” and “seated” while dining, and the separate postures and utensils in dining, such as “hands”, “chopsticks” (including spoons), and “knives, forks and spoons”. Table 2 is a matrix created to classify the serving methods, such as “spatial development” and “sequential order”, and the methods of food distribution, such as “individual” and “communal”. Combining Table 1 and Table 2 results in the matrix shown in Table 3. In other words, Table 3 describes a total of 24 types of dining formats by distributing the types described in Table 1 using the alphabet along the X-axis, and the types described in Table 2 using numbers along the Y-axis. 26

As a broad outline for comparing the world’s dining formats, this matrix, which ranks and classifies them, is effective as an approach for considering historical changes. For example, daily eating in Medieval Europe is thought to have been type B (seated dining using the hands) in Table 1, and type 2 (communal dining, spatial development) in Table 2. This type is cell B2 in Table 3. As things have grown more modern, this has changed to type F (seated dining using a knife, fork, and spoon) in Table 1, and type 3 (individual dining, spatial development) in Table 2. This is described in cell F3 in Table 3. In other words, the European dining format upgraded from B2 to F3. To tell the truth, it would have been sufficient for this thesis to describe the dining formats of China, Japan

and the Korean Peninsula individually, even without preparing the matrix. By ordering them using this framework however, I wanted to investigate the possibility of comparing regional differences in dining formats, their changes through the ages, and comparing daily meals at home with meals held at official events and when dining out, so I created these rather rough tables.

THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY AND DINING IN EAST ASIA Family structure and Confucianism In China and the Korean Peninsula, where the most common model is the patrilineal clan, the ideology pervading traditional society is Confucianism or “ru 儒”, within which emphasis is placed on “filial piety”, the “distinction between genders”, and the “distinction between generations”. As described below, family ethics as explained according to Confucianism were also reflected historically in the family dining tables of China and the Korean Peninsula. In contrast, in traditional Japanese society, the state was not administered according to Confucian ideology and ideas associated with Confucianism did not form the basis of action in family life; Confucianism instead was significant only as intellectual food for thought.3 China Generally, surviving records of eating and drinking in ancient times are limited to those concerning the upper classes, ceremonies and public events, and China is no exception to this. According to the “Sijiyan 司几 筵” chapter in the “Rites of Zhou”, a coarse matting called

“yan 筵” was spread out on the floor in homes, and a high-quality, small and thin mat called a “xi” was placed on top, and people then sat on the “xi 席” to eat. In a thesis by Tan Tanaka, “Images of Eating and Drinking in Ancient China”, he has included pictures of Chinese dining before the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368 CE), includ-

Traditional dining room with tatami mats at the Yarimikan hotel in Takayama, Japan

ing images of banquets from the Later Han (25-220 CE) and Wei-Jin dynasties (Wei, ca. 220-280 CE and Jin, ca. 265-420 CE), and people sitting on the “yan-xi 筵席” mats appeared to be common. Dining tables depicted in ancient paintings are the “an 案” and “pan 盤”. Footnotes added by Yan Shigu to the “Jijiupian 急就編” describe them as: “those without legs are ‘pan’, those with legs are ‘an’, on which food is placed”, thereby calling a square or circular table without legs a “pan”, and with legs an “an.” In an image of a kitchen on the murals in the No. 1 Liaoyang Bangtaizi grave in the Liaoning Province, from the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE), there are four square and five round “an” stacked up in the kitchen. “An” and “pan” were placed in the kitchen, and for meals, a serving for a single person was placed on one, and the table was then carried out to be placed in front of the diner seated on the mat. In other words, this serves as proof of the existence in ancient China of the C1 dining format in Table 3, sit-down dining, use of chopsticks and spoons, individual serving and spatial development model.4 This type influenced the traditional dining formats of the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Images of banquets unearthed near Chengdu in the Sichuan Province however, depict scenes in which four people surrounded a single dining table with two people seated at opposite ends along a square “xi”, with a low-backed square dining table placed between them. Furthermore, it is also necessary to consider that there are numerous images of banquets from the Eastern Han and Wei-Jin dynasties in which people are sitting not on matting, but on low stools or a divan, with a large dining table piled with food placed before them. The use of chairs was common among the nobility during the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE), and during the

Middle Tang dynasty (ca. 713-765 CE), in the homes of upper and middles classes and of bureaucrats, all of whom changed to a chair-using lifestyle.5 According to archaeological evidence from the banquet images used by Tan Tanaka, from the Tang and Five Dynasties periods, we have scenes that depict meals being eaten at a table. From this period on, Han people sat on chairs and stools just like today, and had their meals at a dining table. With regards to dining formats in which people sat around a table that had a limited surface area on which to place food there was probably a shift from serving people individually using separate “an” or “pan”, to communal serving methods in which food was distributed from communal dishes. Furthermore, for dining in restaurants, at banquets and for upper-class dining in which servants carried out dish after dish, the format was probably refined into the sequential system (C3 in Table 3). However, daily meals were characterised overwhelmingly by the spatial development model and this continues to the present day. Until now, under a family system that values distinction between genders, dining in Chinese families has been characterised by the custom of men and women in large families dining separately. According to a report by Motonosuke Amano, in the case of large families in Quyang, Hebei Province before World War II, the wives and children never participated in the family meals with their husbands, even after being married for 15 years. In addition, in large Han families in Taiwan as well, in ancient times homemakers (usually the women) dined at the same table as the men of their family only once a year, and this meal was limited to New Year’s Eve.6 In a case that I heard of in a farming village outside Jinan, 27

A serving lady in kimono sets a table at the Ryokan Tanabe restaurant in Takayama

Shandong Province, during the Chinese Nationalist era wealthy families never had both men and women dining at the same table, but always ate separately; the women would sit down to eat after the men had finished and would suffice with the men’s leftovers. Among poor farming families however, men and women would eat together, sitting around the same table. Korean Peninsula Traditional dining on the Korean Peninsula meant that one would eat while seated on the floor of the house. This is probably related to the spread of the “ondol”, a floor-heating installation. Since ancient times, in Goguryeo in the north, there were hearths similar to those originating in the northeast region of China, but the 28

spread of the “ondol” as far as the south of the Korean Peninsula happened only after the era of the Goryeo dynasty.7 Another factor that deeply influenced the traditional method of organising dining was the Confucian ideal that emphasised the separation of men and women, and adults and children. Due to the influence of elites who emphasised Confucianism during the period of the Korean imperial dynasties, from the start of the 16th century, “Zhuzi Reverence for the Family” also spread to the general populace, thus shaping the daily lifestyles of the Korean people. Dining formats passed down to the present day are thought to have been established around that time. I will try to outline this by taking the example of large families in the Yangban class, who were the nobility until the first half of the 20th century. Their traditional dining format can be explained with the family hierarchy based on ideas associated with Confucius, according to which they ate seated on the floor around the “ondol” in a space used as a living area.8 The dining table used for eating while seated on the floor was called a “sang” or “ban”. The most formal dining table was a dining table for just one person, called the single-seat “sang” (“dokzhua-sang”), or “dok-sang” for short. The “two-seat sang” (“kyeom-sang”) was an oblong dining table used by two people facing each other, and the circular “ban” was a dining table used by several people seated around it. In terms of the physical equipment used for these dining formats, traditional meals meant that one sat on the floor, using chopsticks and spoons, and had the meal served based on the spatial development model. But depending on the category to which the users belonged and the model of dining table, this can be divided into “individual” (C1 in Table 3) and “communal” (C2 in Table 3) types. The rules governing the order of dining, the site used for eating and the type of dining table used were principally based on sex and age within the family. Here, I would like to use as an example a household comprising three generations of Yangban, which is a comparatively simple family configuration. The wife lays out the dining tables with food cooked in the kitchen and carries them into each living room. The

order of presentation is fixed. The first table is carried into the room of the head of the household, who is her husband, the second into the room of the grandparents. The head of the household eats alone at a “dokzhuasang”. The grandparents eat seated at a “kyeom-sang”. The small grandchildren may be invited to join the grandparents. As the grandchildren and grandparents are two generations apart, dining together is permitted. However, seating for those who are only one generation apart, such as grandfather and father, or father and son etc., at the same dining table is not allowed. Children who cannot feed themselves eat with their mothers. When the grandparents and head of the family have finished eating, the meal for the sons is carried into the living room for the male members of the family, which is called the “saranban”. Next, food is taken to the women’s wing, called the “nedang” (translated: inner sanctum), and it is finally the wife’s turn to eat. When ordinary people are dining on a traditional meal, the generational hierarchy within the family is ignored, but the principle of separation of the sexes is still observed. In other words, the men of the family are separated in the “saranban” and the women in the women’s room, called the “nebang” (translated: inner kitchen). If both the bride and mother-in-law are seated at the same table, the bride eats by placing her own utensils on the floor underneath the dining table. This act symbolises the generational difference. Japan During the long period from the Neolithic to the Kofun era (3rd to 6th century CE), the most common Japanese eating format is thought to have been “sit-down dining, eating with hands, with the communal serving practice and spatial development model” (A2 in Table 3). During the 7th and 8th centuries CE, eating with the use of individual dining tables and chopsticks became common due to influence from China and the Korean Peninsula, thus signalling a shift to “sit-down dining, using chopsticks, individual serving and spatial development model” (C1 in Table 3). This became the traditional Japanese format that continued up to the first half of the 20th century.9 The Japanese dining model is characterised by the complete adoption of the individual serving method. A

Guests eating dinner at the Hisamatsu guest house in the village of Ogimachi

into Japan through Nagasaki, the only port where the Dutch and Chinese merchants were permitted to stay. The “chabudai” from Nagasaki was modified so that it could be used when sitting on “tatami” mats, the Japanese-style flooring. This was done by shortening the legs of the “baxianzhuo 八僊卓”, which was used by the Chinese in Nagasaki. During the Meiji period, the idea of making “chabudai” legs foldable for storage was conceived, and such types of “chabudai” became popular throughout Japan. When not in use, these “chabudai” were kept in a corner of the room, and then were assembled at meal times. Urban families at the start of the 20th century discarded tables for individual use, and it became fashionable to eat with the whole family seated around a large dining table called a “chabudai”. We found out in our study that in 1925, more families used the “chabudai” than the individual “zen” tables, and during the 1930s and 1940s, nearly every family in the country ate using the “chabudai”. Even though the entire family now eats seated at the same dining table, the communal serving method is not used, and food is divided into individual dishes and served separately on the “chabudai”.

CHANGES IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY

serving for one person is placed on a oblong, legless small dining table called an “orishiki” or on a low-legged table called a “zen”, which has the same shape as an ancient Chinese-style “an”. If there are many dishes that could not all fit on one “zen” or “orishiki”, such as at banquets or during official meals, multiple dining tables are placed in front of one person. Furthermore, unlike in China or on the Korean Peninsula, families are not separated into dining groups by sex or generation, but as a rule the whole family eats in the same room at the same time. In families of upperclass warriors and wealthy merchants during the Edo period (1603-1867 CE), the head of the household might customarily be separated from the dining place of the rest of the family to eat alone in a separate room

served by his wife or a servant, but in the lives of ordinary people, it was common for the whole family to eat together. The separation of the sexes and of adults and children can be seen, however, in the way the dining tables were set, with the tray for the head of the household placed first in the most important seat and the remaining trays arranged in the order of sex and age. Governing order and etiquette at the dining table was the duty of the head of the household, and children were forbidden from laughing or talking while eating, and they were required to eat in relative silence. During the Edo period, when contact with the outside world was cut off and Japan was a closed country, “chabudai 卓袱台”, the low dining table, came

In Japan, which has seen the modernisation of society modelled on Western civilisation, chairs and tables have been used since the 1870s in social living spaces, such as in schools, in the military and in offices etc., but the spread of tables and chairs in family life occurred only after the end of World War II. According to the results of studies conducted, in 1971, a majority of Japanese families started using dining tables and chairs for eating, and currently more than 80 % of households utilise Western-style seating for meals. In other words, the dining format has changed from C1 to D1 in Table 3.10 In addition, while retaining the principle of the spatial development serving method, the sequential order method of serving hot food immediately when it is ready, and cold food just before it is eaten, is now being utilised. This is because it has become possible to eat while cooking, due to changes in the home, such as 29

setting up dining tables in the kitchen or placing the dining table in the room right next to the kitchen. There is also the widespread use of gas and electrical kitchen appliances and the availability of the electric refrigerator and freezer. Changes in family or household relationships can be correlated to the act of sitting around the dining table. Since dining is no longer led by the head of the household and the whole family sits around the table with equal status, women and children are now able to talk freely while eating, thus transforming the dining experience into a fun group activity. In Korea, the idea of the “democratisation of the family” began to spread after the end of the Korean War, and by the 1970s the proportion of nuclear families had risen. These families, with fewer family members, stopped the dining practice that separated family members based on sex and generation. Instead, it became customary for the whole family to sit around the same dining table. With the popularity of Westernstyle apartments today, many families eat together and sit on chairs at dining tables. In mainland China, it has also become usual for the entire family to sit down together and eat at the same dining table at the same time.

Organised chaos in the kitchen of restaurant Xindalu in Shanghai

FAMILIES AND DINING TODAY In East Asian households today, it has become common for the whole family to eat sitting at the same dining table. This can be explained superficially by the destruction or the collapse of the patrilineal system and the liberation from the bonds of Confucian ideology. However, when we examine the issue more carefully and look deeper into the context, we will see that the problem of changes in the nature of families and groups in modern society is not peculiar to East Asia, but is an issue faced by societies all over the world. Changes in domestic life and transformation in familial and group relations as well as related issues are all parts pertinent in the study of human history. Until now, people in agrarian societies led a self-sufficient lifestyle that was bound to the land, and the family was the main unit of production and consump30

tion. Even families that were involved in commerce supported the industry through family-based labour. With the advent of industrial societies, families no longer play the primary role of being the base of a family business, and not every member of a household has a role in the production of goods. Instead, its members commute to offices and factories, all of which have become social facilities for production to take place. The household has become the site for a consumer lifestyle. With such changes made to the domestic lifestyle, the shape of the household has also altered. When activities were centred on a cottage industry based on the household production unit, large families were extremely important in terms of providing labour. In a

society predominantly dependent on salaried individuals who work companies and corporations, huge families have lost their significance. Instead, there is the rise of the nuclear family. On the other hand, in societies with a high level of industrialisation, functions that were previously performed by the family have evolved into social services, and the socialisation of family functions has been advanced. Responsibility for production has fallen to businesses, while that of child-rearing and education has been passed on to nurseries and schools, and the household structure, which had previously been the basis of communal support, has now been replaced by social security (administered by the government). Amid such trends, the ideology that had previously

The few who eat lunch at home are homemakers, very young children, and the elderly, none of whom commute to work. It is extremely common for those working to take their evening meal outside the family home with work colleagues or friends. According to a survey in 2001, only a mere 25.8 % of families eat breakfast daily with everyone in the family at the same time, and only 31.6 % take their evening meal daily with everybody together, with households that eat supper with the entire family present two or three times a week measuring 31.2 %. Families that eat both breakfast and supper together are a minority.11 In highly industrialised societies, as the significance of the family as a functional unit dwindles, the dining table in the home is the place where families that lead different social lives can catch up with each other. The cohesiveness of families is maintained by dining together. Consequently, it will be ideal to strike a balance between the “family kitchen and dining table”, and the “social kitchen and dining table”.

1

Seiji Aoki: Yo Saji Kitsuhanko. In: Aoki Seiji Zenshu. Vol. 9, Shunkasha, 1970

2

Shin Sahara: Hashi to Chawan. In: Shoku no Kokogaku. Tokyo University Press, 1996

3

For details, see Naomichi Ishige: Chapter 2. In: Shokutaku Bunmeiron. Chukososho, 2005

4

Tan Tanaka: Kodai Chugoku Gazo no Kappo to Inshoku. In: Naomichi Ishige (ed.): Ronshu: Higashi Ajia no Shokuji Bunka. Heibonsha, 1985

5

Cui Yongxue: Zhongguo Jiaju-shi; Zuojubian. Ming Wen Shu Ju, 1986

6

Motonosuke Amano: Shokuji Chugoku. In: Sekai Daihyakka Jiten, Heibonsha, 1966

7

Chang Pao-Hsiung: Nichi-Kan Minka no Hikaku. In: Hisatsugu Sugimoto (ed.): Nihon no Sumai no Genryu. Bunka Shuppankyoku, 1984

8

Fan Heson and Naomichi Ishige: Kankoku no Shoku. Heibonsha, 1988

A restaurant serving Hida beef, Takayama

supported order in family life has become powerless. At the same time, with the entry of women into society, differences between men and women in the home lessened. And the authority of the head of the household and other elderly members, who were previously household managers and specialised instructors and whose expertise was crucial when the household supplied labour for the cottage industry, has faded. These phenomena, which could also be called a series of steps of “family democratisation”, have developed regardless of the influence of socialism or capitalism. This effect has not been confined to East Asia, but the move of the nuclear family sitting around the same dining table has occurred in highly industrialised societies throughout the world.

The “socialisation of family functions”, particularly that pertaining to food, is characterised by the development of the food industry, which is the “social kitchen”, and the major expansion of the practice of dining out, which is the “social dining table”. As people have become economically affluent, they have begun to purchase foodstuffs manufactured in social kitchens for consumption at home, and the opportunities to dine out at social dining tables outside the home have also increased. The era of the family managing all meals entirely is over. Opportunities for the whole family to dine together are also on the wane. In Japan, many families eat breakfast at different times, usually dependent upon the amount of time needed to commute to and from work or school.

9

For details, refer to Note 3, Chapters 4 and 5

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For details, refer to Note 3, Chapter 7

11

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; Equal Employment, Children and Families Bureau (eds.): FY2001: Jido Kankyo Chosa Kekka no Gaiyo, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare homepage 2003 31

FROM TEA ROOMS TO CAFÉ STREETS, OR: HOW DID COFFEE END UP IN CHURCH? GIN-YOUNG SONG

People in Seoul still tell stories about how coffee was a popular choice in the so-called “dabang” (tea room) well into the 1980s, where it was served by the hostess or “madame”, as they were called at the time. A dabang is usually associated with upholstered sitting areas and sofas, and low partitions, warm lighting and classical music. Just like in today’s cafes, you could order tea, snacks and instant coffee, or the “morning coffee”, which was an instant coffee topped with a raw egg yolk. For those born after 1980, the dabang will remain one of those nostalgic places that will never again be experienced in its original form. The same is true of the coffee vending machines that belonged to modern daily life in many parts of the city until the 1990s. In his comic strip “How about a coffee?” the South Korean cult author Youngman Heo devoted the episode “Ciao, coffee machines” to the once flourishing coin-operated coffee machines. In the comic, an American stands helplessly in front of one of the machines, which evidently hasn’t been working for some time. “You have to be kidding me! I came all the way here to enjoy the coffee again!”, he yells. After having spent time in the area as an exchange student, he had missed the coffee from the vending machines so much that during a business trip to Seoul he went out of his way to return. One of the protagonists – a cafe owner and “coffee master” – asks him if it has to be exactly “that” specific coffee, his trainee even politely offers him a “better” coffee. “There a plenty of those kinds of cafés in the USA”, the American replies and insists on a vending machine coffee. The coffee from the machine for 300 won (around 27 cents) is something for fans of simplicity, it’s unhealthy 32

Morning Coffee

and symbolises the aesthetic of cheap taste. In the new millennium it has slowly been replaced by a more sophisticated appreciation of espresso and brewed coffee, and by the compact automatic coffee makers for home and commercial use, as is the case in Europe. Korean-style coffee? Aside from the fact that the dabang or vending machine coffee is being increasingly rediscovered as a sort of “soul” of the South Korean coffee culture, a remarkable “new” culture of coffee has developed in South Korea during the past ten years. According to the trade magazine Coffee, the number of cafes operated by multinational and national chains, as well as small independent cafes, quadrupled between 2008 and 2010. In 2012, there were some 15,000 cafés in South Korea, with around half in and around Seoul. Since then, cafés have continued to establish themselves as places suitable for consumption, enjoyment, work, or just generally passing time during daily life in the city. In addition

to the well-known international chains, there has been an increase in South Korean companies, such as the chain franchise caffé bene, and roasting cafes, cafes which roast their own coffee. The market for private consumption is also growing. Following the first wave in the 1960s when coffee became affordable for everyone, and a second wave characterised by fast indulgences thanks to coffee chains and capsule machines,1 the media has now started to talk about a ‘third wave’ of coffee culture. The German newspaper Die Zeit claims that “foodies” and “purists” are the protagonists of this worldwide trend in the urban coffee scene.2 It can be characterised by the specialised and individualised methods of preparation, as well as by a strong appreciation of the product coffee in general. In European cities, too, the “new” coffee culture entails something other than grandma’s brewed coffee or Italian espresso. “Don’t be surprised if your coffee doesn’t taste as expected. Allow yourself to discover what it is: a fruit”, explains a third-wave cafe in Zurich on its homepage.3 Today’s urban coffee cultures are unique in the sense that they are emerging at the same time across the globe – a so-called hipster cafe can be found in San Francisco, Barcelona and Sydney, but also in Seoul. The knowledge and information around coffee, the way of going about feeling and tasting it, as well as the vocabulary used to describe the gustatory experiences, are all transmitted, standardised and reproduced via the internet and by different forms of media and institutions, such as the Specialty Coffee Association, and by competitions. Yet, in light of the interdependence between cities in today’s world, is it even possible to speak of a South Korean coffee culture? Instead of trying to look for

Left: Interior of the Keopi Maeul in Ilsan New Town Top right: Jisu (left) and Songha (right) are regulars from the neighbourhood. Bottom right: Fresh waffles from an ‘original Belgian’ recipe are baked daily.

“the” authentic South Korean coffee culture, the following concrete example serves to highlight the innovative potential of coffee in a South Korean context. Here, the symbolic meaning of coffee plays a central role. Keopi Maeul The Keopi Maeul /kh phi ma l/ (coffeehouse for village in English) is located on a street corner in Baekseokdong, District 13, in Ilsan New Town. Ilsan New Town was built at the beginning of the 1990s as one of the first planned satellite cities in the Seoul area. In its ground floor, the building houses a café with its own roastery, and the “One Hour School”, a tutoring facility for socially disadvantaged children and young people. A woodworking shop for adults, children and young

people was also opened in 2015. Next to the cafe is a mobile coffee cart; the “Dallyeora Keopi” (which can be translated as “Run, coffee!”) means that the projects at Keopi Maeul are not limited to one place. Between the cafe and the workshop, a staircase leads down to a renovated kitchen area, previously used by a wine vendor as a cellar. The room is always open and is used for the weekly church service and concerts. Here, a protestant pastor and a renowned barista in the South Korean coffee scene can be found in the very same person. The concept of Keopi Maeul makes it different to most ordinary community centres. In line with a sociological approach to religion, it can be understood as a “deconstruction of the church” 4 – an active secularisation of the church as an institution, as it becomes a more

socially engaged, ecumenical and business-driven community. The projects are linked to a broader community movement and thus represent a site of experimentation with alternative kinds of economic activity, according to the notion of a “moral economy”. For Junho Ahn (45), pastor and barista, coffee is not a medium for conveying his religious convictions, but rather a part of his own self-realisation process. “Ironically, the closer I get to the barista part of me, the more I feel like a ‘real’ pastor. I really want to be a pastor who can make a ‘really good’ coffee, and not necessarily one that can speak well.” 5 In this context, “making coffee” means the whole process from roasting to sorting the coffee beans by hand 33

A café street in Seoul’s Buam-dong district

Exterior of a café in Seoul‘s Samcheong-dong district. The cafés change the atmosphere and function of a street.

and removing those which are damaged, right through to grinding and brewing. For him, this repetitive procedure is the kind of physical and aesthetic task that is almost meditative. The materiality of the coffee drink is particularly significant here. But why coffee of all things? “That’s just how coffee culture is. Coffee culture includes everything. […] The diverse ways of making it, […] but also the ritual of drinking it, and the elements of celebration, concerts, conversations, and learning how to make coffee.” According to Ahn, the cultural dimensions of coffee aren’t just related to the sophisticated ways the drink can be prepared, it’s also about the actions and things we associate with coffee more broadly. Taken beyond the drink itself, for him it’s linked to a general approach to life, one that’s in harmony with his theo-

logical stance, which allows for faith to be interpreted through the practices of “(physical) work, celebrating, being happy and being together”.

34

Café golmok – Golmok café Subsequently, the fact that the café is found in a “golmok” is important, both as a spatial and a symbolic statement. In Korean, golmok refers to a narrow street away from the main streets, or basically a lane. “I am a pastor in a golmok café”, says Ahn in reference to himself. Since the rapid urbanisation processes in the 1970s, these tight, windy streets, often only suitable for pedestrians, are largely associated with poorer parts of the city, which were missed by the large-scale projects and renovations. They are a product, and also a symbol of

the city’s unplannable development processes. In contrast to the structural modernisation processes from the 1960s to 1990s, which were regarded as highly undemocratic and drastic transformations from above, carried out by a small number of construction companies on behalf of an authoritarian government, these locations represent the exact opposite – an aesthetic and idealised space in an urbanised and changeable city, which conveys a sense of authenticity. The growing symbolic appreciation of the golmok in recent years has evidently been accompanied by the emergence of so-called café golmok – laneways with several small cafes. The “cosy” and “original” cafés have revitalised the local economy, and with their facades and distinct show windows, they manage to transform

ceptualising how the physical room can be designed and used. Whether it’s the disco ball on the ceiling, the woodworking shop, or perhaps just the smell of the roasted coffee beans – a church café does indeed seem less “churchy” than one would imagine. Coffee and space For the past ten years, coffee has taken its place as something more than just a consumer good on many levels of South Korean daily life. The continually developing coffee culture is taken well beyond the dimension of coffee as a drink. The example of Keopi Maeul reveals how a faith-based community can reorient and redefine itself beyond institutional boundaries through the symbolic meaning of coffee. The changing coffee culture, just like the rooms in which it comes to life, can take on a variety of shapes. The city of Seoul, for example, has integrated a “coffee street” in its official map for tourists, promoting a walk through the “traditional” laneways. These changes– from the dabang coffee and the vending machines through to the golmok cafes – aren’t arbitrary. Rather, they are based on existing interpretations of coffee as a beverage and the related actions and ideas. It is through this process that the meaning and function of the various spaces are also transformed. Cafés in the Samcheong-dong district of Seoul

the golmok, turning many of these café streets into a kind of promenade. The locally run cafés convey something of a European lifestyle, at the same time retaining their local character. Their symbolic and economic value emerges as a result of this connection between old and new, and from something that is both familiar and foreign. For Ahn, the golmok is an ideal starting point for his activities. From a pragmatic perspective, the rent and general costs of maintenance are lower here than in the

main streets or in already commercialised areas. Yet, his choice is also motivated by the symbolic significance of this location, given that the golmok represent a tucked away place, one which is associated with social disadvantage – a stark contrast to the grand buildings of the mainstream churches. Moreover, they are connected with a positive, upcoming image which presents the golmok as a creative and authentic location. Conversely, the symbolic location also plays a role in the overall concept, influencing the process of con-

1

http://sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/39515/Laeuft (Accessed 16.07.2015)

2

http://www.zeit.de/lebensart/essen-trinken/2010-09/ kaffee-trends (Accessed 16.07.2015)

3

http://www.bbc-coffee.ch/en/ (Accessed 16.07.2015)

4

Marti, Gerardo; Ganiel, Gladys: The Deconstructed Church. Understanding Emerging Christianity. Oxford 2014

5

All quotes from Junho Ahn are based on the following sources, and I would like to thank him for sharing: - Interview with Junho Ahn on 30.05.2015 in Keopi Maeul, Ilsan New Town - Email exchange with Junho Ahn (29–30.06.2015) - Junho Ahn’s blog entries. URL: http://blog.naver. com/walk_forest (last accessed on 30.06.2015) 35

PROJECTS IN ASIA OLD STREET KOBITEH, HONG KONG (HK)

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SUZUKAKE HONTEN, FUKUOKA (J)

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CAFÉ KI, TOKYO (J)

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SUSHI AZUMA, OSAKA (J)

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SMITH&HSU TEAHOUSE, TAIPEI (RC)

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PLAY POT, SEOUL (ROK)

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KAYANOYA, TOKYO (J)

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COFFEESMITH, SEOUL (ROK)

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SHYO RYU KEN, OSAKA (J)

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OLD STREET KOBITEH RESTAURANT | HONG KONG (HK) Design: NC Design & Architecture (NCDA), www.ncda.biz Team: Whatever Workshop (Graphic Design) Completion: 2013 Contact: Shop G09, Popcorn Mall, Tsueng Kwan O, Hong Kong (HK) Owner: Buick Management Limited

A colourful, inviting, clearly organised minimalist space greets guests in the Old Street Kobiteh restaurant in a shopping mall in the Hong Kong suburb of Tseung Kwan O. With its architectural concept for the restaurant, the firm of NC Design & Architecture, also based in Hong Kong and headed by Nelson Chow, sought to revive memories of Malaysian street scenes of the 1920s. Chow had in mind the kopitiams that were just becoming popular at that time. The name “kopitiam” comes from the Malay word for coffee, “kopi”, and a word from the southern Chinese Hokkien dialect for shop, “tiam”. Kopitiams are found in residential neighbourhoods and business districts all over South East Asia. Most kopitiams consist of a collection of small stands or shops. They are places for sociable gatherings, offering coffee and other drinks as well as simple dishes from various regions and different cultures and traditions. Despite their simplicity, most kopitiams offer a very diverse range of food and drink. During the design process, Nelson Chow found some historic photos of street traders preparing various dishes for sale to passers-by. He wanted to express the diverse range of sounds, smells and aromas that the photos of the lively urban street scenes evoked in his imagination in the restaurant’s visual concept. Planning for the restaurant began in 2012, and it is based on a typical kopitiam, a South East Asian version of a café. 38

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Entrance Dining room Bar Kitchen

Entering the Old Street Kobiteh, guests are surprised by the diversity created by the materials used. In its oblong main room is an eleven-metre-long row of 19 tables for two. Each tabletop is covered with a different traditional Malay pattern of tiny mosaic tiles. The sequence of differently decorated tabletops creates a colourful yet harmonious overall appearance, as colourful as the many different people who meet here. In effect, everyone sits together at one table, as the architect intended. Parallel to the long, colourfully decorated row of tables is the restaurant counter, where guests can sit on bar stools and watch the food being prepared. Above the counter, the menu hangs on a series of backlit panels, clearly legible for everyone. At the back of the Old Street Kobiteh, slightly concealed in niches, are two more seating areas. One directly adjoins the bar and can seat ten people. One 39

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quaint detail in this niche is the mechanical typewriter attached to the wall, which, long since disused, takes pride of place here. Another section with seating for eight is tucked into the back wall of the restaurant. For ceiling, floors and walls, the designers chose calm, restrained materials. The lower section of the wall along the long row of tables is clad with dark brown, shiny, square tiles. This tiled area is the same height as the counter, which is clad with honey-coloured wood. The floor is covered with small, matt brown, square tiles. The strict grid pattern of the tiled floor and wall, the arrangement of tables and the regular positioning of mint-green, neon tube pendant ceiling lamps contrast with the patterned tables’ colours. Magazines hanging on lines on the wall along the long row of tables and a red neon Chinese character on the restaurant’s back wall are further eye-catching details. Old Street Kobiteh serves mainly Malay as well as some Thai dishes. Guests order and pay for their food at the counter when they enter. 41

SUZUKAKE HONTEN PASTRY SHOP, CAFÉ | FUKUOKA (J) Design: CASE-REAL Koichi Futatsumata + Partners, www.casereal.com | Team: Koichi Futatsumata (design, furniture design), Koichi Shimohira (planning assistant); Ob (construction); ModuleX Fukuoka (light plannning); E&Y (furniture manufacture) Materials: black Japanese plaster, bamboo (wall); oak wood (natural and with white silk finish for the floor, wall and chairs); carpet (floor); “Urushi” Japanese lacquer (signboard); fabric, black leather (chairs) | Completion: 2008 Contact: 12-20 Kamikawabatamachi Hakata-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka-ken 812-0026 (J) | Owner: SUZUKAKE

Kaho and Saho – identical Japanese language twins meaning patisserie (Kaho) and tea room (Saho). SUZUKAKE Honten has given these language twins form in an architectural concept. Designers from the Japanese firm of CASE-REAL combined and designed both sections under one roof. SUZUKAKE Honten is in Fukuoka, the largest city on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan‘s main islands. While the tea room can be seen from outside, the patisserie is concealed deeper inside the building, like a shrine. This concept is based on the idea that a business selling patisserie and sweets is an almost sacred 42

place that should be protected from intrusion and the gaze of the curious. SUZUKAKE Honten’s entrance is hung with five curtains in different colours and leads directly into a spacious foyer. From here guests can enter the Kaho to their right or the Saho to their left. In order to present its top quality sweets and patisserie as appealingly as possible, the Kaho has a nine metre-long, impressively lit display case. Extensively cantilevered at both ends, it seems almost to float. To highlight the display counter the designers kept the walls behind it in a restrained black. The back wall of the shrine-like display case is clad with regularly

placed vertical wooden slats; a motif repeated in the tea room opposite. In contrast to the more closed-looking Kaho, the Saho was designed to be a light, open space. Guests can enjoy their tea and a view of the world outside through its large window to the street. Light, loosecovered chairs and warm lighting create a pleasant atmosphere and enhance the inviting character of SUZUKAKE Honten. All the details are made with impressive precision, effectively highlighting the overall concept’s contrasting clarity.

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CAFÉ KI CAFÉ | TOKYO (J) Design: id, www.id-inc.jp | Team: Seiji Oguri, Yohei Oki Materials: steel, wood (white and espresso-coloured painted finish) | Completion: 2013 Contact: 5-9-5-1A, Daita, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo (J), 155-0033, www.ki-cafe.com | Owner: Mametora Kashiten

The fine art of restraint and attention to detail is pervasive and deeply anchored in Japanese culture and gained additional impetus in the Edo period (1603– 1868). During this era, under the rule of Japan’s Tokugawa shogun dynasty, society developed strict principles regulating domestic life, eating and garden culture. Haiku, the world’s shortest poetic form, also flourished during this period.1 One impressive example of the art of restraint’s continuing influence today is Café Ki in Setgaya, a district in south-western Tokyo. At 58.08 square kilometres, Setgaya is the second-largest of Tokyo’s 23 districts and the most populous with more than 899,326 residents. Space is at a premium in this area of the densely populated city. Café Ki, opened in the autumn of 2013, shows how an inviting and impressive space can be designed in a limited space using just a few materials and simple furnishings. The young Japanese design firm id, headed by Seiji Oguri and Yohei Oki, was responsible for designing the space. During discussions held in advance, the owner explained that she wanted a lively 44

and natural atmosphere for her café – like that of “a walk in the forest”. Yet she also wanted the space to look restrained, like an art gallery. So how could the designers bring a forest indoors? Working with real plants was not a solution they favoured, believing that indoor plants tend not to look very lively. In a café they might also attract insects, so the planners found another more abstract solution. Entering the square café from the street through a sliding glass door, guests find themselves in a “forest” of coffee-coloured steel pipes, of stylised trunks and branches, reduced to a minimum, that look like sketches of leafless trees. These multifunctional steel pipes are not mere decorative elements; they also support the café’s three tables. Two of the tables, with one and with six seating places respectively, stand freely in the space, while a third table seating four more people extends along the bar. Painted white throughout, the light space contrasts strongly with the dark “trees”. They “grow” partly over 45

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the tabletops and guests can hang their hats, bags and jackets on their “branches”. Although six people can fit fairly close together at the largest of the three tables, a comfortable distance also remains because “branches” optically divide the table space.

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Floor plan Scale 1:50 1 Entrance 2 Dining room 3 Bar

The café’s name derives from its simple design idea. “Ki” is the Japanese word for forest. The young designers from id reinterpreted the Japanese tradition of restraint with their chosen means and the execution of their design. Guests may well be reminded of a haiku ascribed to Basho, the greatest haiku poet: “Come to my hut, and bring me some of the wind, drifting through the pine branches”2. Like Café Ki, his poem opens up a wide range of associations. Restraint is also the motto governing the cafe’s gastronomic offerings. Coffee is primarily served here, but there is also a range of home-made cakes and tarts on offer. The planners further continued the tradition of attention to detail in their designs for the cafe’s graphics, its staff uniforms and website. Seiji Oguri and Yohei Oki can now confirm that reactions to the café from the neighbourhood have been most welcoming. During the building phase, passersby often stopped to examine the white space with its evocations of trees more closely and now guests of all ages enjoy visiting the café. 1

see: Erläuterungen zu einer fremden literarischen Gattung. In: Haiku. Japanische Gedichte. Selected and translated by Dietrich Krusche, with accompanying essay. Munich 1994, p. 122ff.

2

ibid., p. 62 47

SUSHI AZUMA RESTAURANT | OSAKA (J) Design: STILE, www.go-go-stile.com | Team: Ietsugu Ohara; Jiro Ida, Ida Home (construction); Hiroyuki Nagatomi, Maxray (lighting); Kenichi Kandatsu, flame (decorative lighting); MichioTano, Yagi Collection (furniture) Materials: canvas, wood | Completion: 2011 Contact: 1-6-10 /Century Building 1F, Sonezakishinchi, Kita-ku, Osaka (J) Owner: Mamoru Azuma

Clear lines, unadorned walls and indirect light are the main stylistic elements in the design of Sushi Azuma in Osaka. Guests enter the sushi bar through a fairly inconspicuous entrance, which features a rolled up white blind – similar to a traditional Japanese “sudare” – indicating to guests that the restaurant is open. Inside, the almost square dining room is divided into several zones. A curved partition guides guests past the front counter at the entrance towards the back of the restaurant and its long counter. Here visitors can sit and watch sushi masters at work. Tables with fixed benches secluded in two niches opposite the counter offer diners a more intimate dining atmosphere. 48

The niches and the wall they are set into are clad with light wood, giving the entire space a pleasantly warm atmosphere. The tables and benches inside are also made of wood. Behind the curved partition, separated from the rest of the restaurant by two steps, is another secluded zone where guests can enjoy their food in the traditional Japanese manner, sitting on the floor.

The restaurant‘s colour scheme relies on strong contrasts. Black wall surfaces contrast with the light wood panelling and the dark floor is clearly distinguished from the pale ceiling. The lighting also makes use of contrasts. The curved wall is illuminated by indirectly illuminating strips attached at the top and bottom, while there are only spotlights in and around the niches.

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This skilfully created play of light and shadow gives the restaurant its calm, concentrated atmosphere. Its architect, Ietsugo Ohara, explains, “In creating the design I subtracted all the decorative elements and concentrated on the fundamental structures of the space and on light. This should enable guests to focus all their attention on the work of the sushi masters.”

Floor plan Scale 1:100 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Entrance Booth Sushi bar Kitchen Dining room Reception Lavatory

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SMITH&HSU TEAHOUSE TEAHOUSE, TEASHOP | TAIPEI (RC) Design: Carsten Jørgensen Materials: concrete (walls and floors), wood (furniture) | Completion: 2011 Contact: Nanjing Store, No. 21, Section 1, Nan Jing East Road, Taipei (RC), www.smithandhsu.com Owner: smith&hsu teahouse

The pleasures of ritual tea drinking have a long tradition, and not just in Asia. When tea began to be imported to Britain from China in the 17th century, a British culture of tea also developed. At that time tea was very expensive and seen as a status symbol. With the smith&hsu teahouse serving English cream tea and afternoon tea in Taipei today, that tradition has come full circle: a cultural tradition that, over time, has encircled the globe. The smith&hsu brand, which has its origins in Taiwan, is a tea business specialist, selling loose teas from plantations all over the world as well as all kinds of tea utensils. A particular focus is on everything essential to both Chinese and British tea culture. The company runs several tea shops and cafés, including a teahouse in the Nanjing East Road in Taipei. Here you can buy tea as well as drink it in the adjoining café. 50

Danish-Swiss product designer Carsten Jörgensen designed the teahouse. The shop, with a guest area extending over two storeys, can accommodate around 10 people on the ground floor and 48 upstairs. Entering the teahouse, customers arrive first in the shop area, where different types of tea and other smith&hsu products are displayed for sale on quadratic wooden shelves and in display cases. On the upper floor, tea lovers can taste different types of tea while browsing through one of the books or magazines freely available from shelves along the walls. Carsten Jörgensen made use of restrained colours and wood and exposed concrete to fittingly showcase tea as a natural product. The exposed concrete walls and floors have a cool look, while the wood of the shelves and other furniture lends the space a lively warmth. Its

ceiling is painted in a restrained black, and all the materials subtly reveal their characters, as the tea does to the tea drinkers. To vary the contrast between organic and inorganic materials, Hans J. Wegner’s wooden Ychairs were chosen to contrast with Eames Plastic Side Chairs by Charles & Ray Eames in the restaurant area. The result is a clearly structured, spacious 172 squaremetre dining area where the spirit of tea culture merges with the spirit of language. Yet there is also space here for pleasure. smith&hsu offer a surprising range of culinary delights based around tea, ranging from cream tea – a version of afternoon tea with scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam, originally from southern England – to afternoon tea, which also includes savouries, dainty sandwiches and other delicacies.

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PLAY POT RESTAURANT | SEOUL (ROK) Design: Lim Taehee Design Studio, www.limtaeheestudio.com | Team: Dongeun Park, Sorah Oh; U.JA Design Lab Materials: exposed concrete, paint finish, tarpaulin, plywood | Completion: 2012 Contact: Bangbae-dong 925-23, Seocho-gu, Seoul (ROK) | Owner: Sungjin Moon

Yellow is a primary colour and one that sends a strong signal. In Thailand it is the colour of the monarchy and in China it was traditionally a colour that only the emperor was allowed to wear. Yellow also plays a central role in the design of the Play Pot restaurant in Seoul. The colour makes an impact from the street, where the restaurant’s yellow and white striped facade attracts 52

the attention of passers-by. Its stripes are printed at various angles to each other on tarpaulin, waterproof canvas sheeting. After dark this material takes on the character typical of a material used to build tents or temporary market stands. A carpet-like strip tempting guests into the restaurant is also yellow and white striped and this colour combination is repeated on the

tarpaulin sheets hanging from the ceiling and in areas at the front and back of the space. Asia is home to a long tradition of street food. In Korea temperatures vary greatly over the course of the seasons, so the country’s food culture developed to allow people to pick up quick meals to eat in roofed spaces sheltered from heat, cold and rain. A pojang-

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Entrance Kitchen Bar Dining room Storage Lavatory

macha, a tent-like stand, sometimes wheeled, that sells food, has become a place where Koreans eat and drink in something like the way people in Central Europe do in pubs. The word “pojangmacha” means “covered wagon”. They sell typical Korean dishes such as hotteok (filled pancakes), gimbap (rice with various added ingredients rolled in sheets of seaweed, something like Japanese sushi), tteokbokki (rice or fish cakes in chilli sauce), sundae (steamed pork or beef giblets), dakkochi (chicken on skewers) or mandu (filled dump54

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lings). Koreans often only drop into pojangmachas late in the evening. For the architects the question was how to translate this Korean tradition of eating “on the fly”, this specifically Korean fast-food culture, into a contemporary context. An exact replication of tradition was out of the question, so their solution was to use spatial dimensions, materials and details to recreate the atmosphere of a pojangmacha. For the Play Pot’s spatial dimensions this meant creating an outdoor or takeaway area that

would project something of the interior outside. Inside, in contrast, the aim was to recreate something of the casual character of a takeaway restaurant. They responded by designing the interior and exterior in the signal colours of yellow and white. A step at the entrance marks the transition between inside and outside. Beyond the entrance, along the long side of the space, is the restaurant’s open kitchen. Its counter is made up of stacks of cupboards in various shades of purple and green and is the defining element in the

eighty square-metre restaurant. Objects left behind by the eatery previously on the premises were also made use of. Some of the kitchen utensils from that business are still in use, while others, like the large cooking pot that now serves as plant tub, have been reused. Play Pot’s wooden tables, with seating for 45, were also taken over from the previous establishment. This project was executed on a small budget, but for all its simplicity it was also designed to meet high standards. Its plan seems to have met with success. The architects are pleased that so many guests warmly appreciate their design, which was after all shaped by a very subjective approach, and suspect that their own fond memories of other, more traditional pojangmachas might be part of the reason for its success. 55

KAYANOYA SOY SAUCE SHOP | TOKYO (J) Design: Kengo Kuma and Associates, www.kkaa.co.jp Materials: cedarwood (koji buta), washi-paper | Completion: 2014 Contact: Nihonbashi Muromachi, Chuo-ku, 103-0022 2-2-1 Tokyo (J), www.kayanoya.com/shop | Owner: Kayanoya

Shōyu or soy sauce is a traditional Japanese seasoning with a very special flavour. At once salty, somewhat earthy and savoury, its taste is also characterised as “umami”, which describes the “fifth flavour”. Umami, an addition to the widely familiar flavours of salty, sweet, sour and bitter, was identified for the first time around a hundred years ago by Kikunae Ikeda, who taught at Tokyo Imperial University, and is now an established flavour in Japan. 56

Soy sauce has a very long history. It was first made in China over 2,500 years ago and arrived in Japan during the 6th century. A Buddhist community forbidden to eat meat and meat-based sauces brought the Chinese soy sauce to Japan, where it quickly became popular because it enriched the flavour of the country’s monotonous rice-based diet. The Japanese also discovered that soy sauce could be used to preserve food. In the 16th century they experimented with

original Chinese soy sauce, which was made only of soy beans, salt and water, and created Japanese soy sauce, which is now available all over the world in varying qualities. Japanese soy sauce adds an equal proportion of grain to the soy beans and is brewed for longer. Soy beans are ground and steamed, then mixed with roasted and ground rice or wheat groats. Adding

specific microorganisms produces “koji”, a dry mash. Enzymes form in the cells of “koji” that are important for the subsequent fragmentation of soy protein and vital to the ensuing brewing process. Salt and water are then added to produce a pulp called “moromi”, which is aged in big tanks. During the ageing process an enzyme reaction occurs that forms the sauce’s flavour and fragments the soy protein into single amino acids. The ingredients determine a soy sauce’s colour, flavour and spiciness. Soy sauce ages for six to eight months, although top-quality sauces can take up to five years to age. The soy sauce, now almost ready, is wrapped in cloths, expressed, filtered and then pasteurised to give it a longer shelf life. Various utensils and equipment are essential in this complex process and they play a major role in the design of the Kayanoya shop. For over 120 years Kayanoya has been making a wide range of versions of its popular seasoning in Fukuoka. To raise the profile of their products across Japan, they decided to open a new shop in the Nihonbashi district in Tokyo. Nihonbashi was the trading centre of Edo, as Tokyo was formerly called, until the end of the Meiji period (1868–1912). “The shop’s interior design is based on the original shop in Kyushu”, says its architect Kengo Kuma. A most unusual and astonishing sight greets customers entering the shop. The huge wooden barrels used in the process of fermenting soy sauce hang from its dark ceiling. During soy sauce production these barrels usually stand on the floor. Wooden trays were also used to build the shop’s shelves and chests of drawers. The trays, called “kojibuta” in Japanese, are also used in soy sauce production. As mentioned above, “koji” means “mash” and the trays are used in the fermentation not only of shōyu or soy sauce, but also for making miso paste and sake, Japanese rice wine. The airy way in which the shelves are stacked, despite the extensive space that they take up, creates a light overall effect. All the barrels and shelf elements are made of cedar wood and come from Kyushu. Local craftsmen from 57

the region made them, underscoring the link with the firm’s original establishment and showcasing the skills required to perform traditional craftsmanship to a high standard – an aspect that Japanese culture values particularly highly. The shop’s lighting concept emphasises a distinctive tension created by the roundness of the massive barrels hanging from the ceiling and the filigree, stepped, stacked shelves. LED downlight spots installed in the 58

bottoms of the barrels spectacularly illuminate the space at twilight and at night. Next to the shelves for presenting products the shop also has a small island cooking unit and a long wooden table also made of cedar wood. Visitors can taste Kayanoya’s diverse range of sauces at the cooking events held here. Kengo Kuma also resorted to traditional Japanese products and craftsmanship in choosing his materials.

The shop’s walls and columns are partly covered with washi paper that is indirectly lit from behind, highlighting the structure of the paper, which is made by hand in the Fukui prefecture. The shop is in the Coredo Muromachi shopping mall and represents the first phase of a new growth strategy for Kayanoya, one being launched first in Japan and then in other countries. More shops are planned for Paris and New York.

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COFFEESMITH CAFÉ | SEOUL (ROK) Design: Son Tae Young Materials: exposed concrete, wooden floors | Completed: 2009 Contact: 25 Teheran-ro 8-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, www.coffeesmith.co.kr | PROPRIETOR: Son Tae Young

When someone mentions Korean food, the first thing that usually comes to mind is kimchi, the spicy marinated cabbage that is served there with almost every meal. What is less well-known is that coffee culture is also very popular in Korea. Along with the familiar franchise companies from the USA, there are also a variety of Korean coffee house chains and small independent cafés in Seoul. One such café is Coffeesmith, which can hold up to 100 guests. It’s located in a bustling street in an unassuming 60

exposed concrete building and extends over two floors. Tall, glass sliding doors separate a covered outdoor area that faces towards the street from the indoor space. When the weather and temperature are pleasant, the enormous doors stand open, inviting passersby to linger in the impressive room. Wooden flooring is found throughout the indoor and outdoor areas. The furniture is made up of white chairs with perforated seats and in the back section, wooden chairs. On the top floor of the café, there are more seating areas, which are separated from one another by low

exposed concrete walls. An almost lounge-like atmosphere is created by cosy couch niches. Additionally, the exposed concrete walls, beams and counter, combined with walls partially covered in wood paneling, convey a more industrial feel. Large pendent lights provide a bright but nonetheless welcoming mood lighting during the evening and night time. The menu offers a range of coffee and tea specialties. Its special atmosphere and location in a popular shopping and party area of Seoul make Coffeesmith a magnet for visitors, even without kimchi.

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SHYO RYU KEN RESTAURANT | OSAKA (J) Design: STILE, www.go-go-stile.com | Team: Ietsugu Ohara; Kenji Kogaito, Yaohousing (construction); Shinji Higashi, Tanikoco (kitchen); Hiroyuki Nagatomi, Maxray (lighting); Kenichi Kandatsu, flame. (decorative lighting) Materials: toughened safety glass and steel (facade); wood, plywood and plastering materials (interior) | Completion: 2012 Contact: 1-1-1/Area No 49 Higashinoda-cho, Miyakojima-ku, Osaka, (J) | Owner: KIHARA

Notions of noodles in Asian and Japanese cuisine differ greatly from Central European ideas of noodles, as Florian Coulmas, Japanologist and until the autumn of 2014 director of the Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien (German Institute for Japanese Studies) in Tokyo, explains in his book “Die Kultur Japans. Tradition und Moderne”. According to Coulmas, this can be observed by the fact that Japanese supermarkets display different noodles in different sections.1 While Italian noodles 62

are made almost exclusively of wheat flour or semolina, Asian noodles are often made of types of flour that are rarely or never found in western noodles, such as rice or buckwheat flour. The white glass noodles made of mung bean starch that become transparent during soaking and cooking, for example, are only found in Asia.2 These differ from ramen, which are wheat flour noodles served with various sauces and soups. Every Japanese city has its own type of ramen and every ramen cook develops

his or her own ramen speciality. Originally from China, ramen are now an important element in Japanese cuisine and ramen restaurants are widespread and very popular in Japan. In Yokohama there is even a ramen museum. The savoury noodle dishes served in ramen restaurants, which are often eaten cold in summer, have long since become successful in Europe. Shyo Ryu Ken is a “ramen-ya”, a ramen soup restaurant, which traditionally serve ramen dishes, mainly soups.

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Planned and completed in 2012 by Ietsugu Ohara from the firm STILE, it is in the business district of Kyobashi, a suburb of Osaka. Seen from outside, the restaurant looks striking yet natural. Its planners wanted to create a place that people in this bustling business district would enjoy meeting in. To underscore its inviting aspect, they deliberately avoided the closed structure typical of “ramen-ya”, opening up the restaurant’s entrance with floor-to-ceiling glass elements. Its

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spacious entry area is marked by a slightly projecting porch, so it is almost like a huge picture, which guests enter through large, sliding elements bearing the restaurant’s name. Entering the square space, guests find two clearly divided areas. To the right of the entrance is a counter at which diners can sit on square wooden stools to eat. The gaze falls on the thirty square-metre open kitchen behind the counter. A bigger table for a larger group of guests stands in an area at the front. Behind it a singleflight staircase leads up to the first floor. 64

To the left of the entrance are six small “cabins”, closed on three sides with roofs pitched at various angles, which house the reception counter and cash desk and five more intimate seating areas. Each of the seating areas, whose furniture is made entirely of wood, is illuminated by three black pendant lights. The floor above, which takes up about a third of the Shyo Ryu Ken’s 120 square-metre space, can accommodate more diners at another four tables. Its architect, Ietsugu Ohara, drew on traditional pointedgabled projecting dormers, such as those of the

Annaka Nagaya samurai house, as his inspiration for the Shyo Ryu Ken’s interior design. This long house, built in the late Edo period (1603–1868), was home to a number of samurai families, who had their own kitchens and living areas, but shared toilet and bathing facilities. The Shyo Ryu Ken cabins, with their pointed roofs and separate eating areas, make use of this principle of accommodating separate zones under a single roof. Shyo Ryu Ken’s wooden counter is also screened by a sloping roof extending into the space and the space beneath it is effectively illuminated.

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Ohara describes his design as using traditional and sustainable Japanese materials, including hardened glass and steel for the doors, and timber and plaster inside. He also sought to re-examine old traditions and bring a breath of fresh air into the surroundings. With clever contrivances such as the varying roof angles he has succeeded in doing just that.

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see: Coulmas, Florian: Die Kultur Japans. Tradition und Moderne. Munich 2003, p. 22

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see: Gödert, Dorothee; Bruckmann, Claudia: Das Teubner Handbuch Asiatisch. Zutaten – Küchenpraxis – Rezepte. Munich 2014, p. 58 65

PROJECTS IN EUROPE NOZOMI, VALENCIA (E)

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TUK TUK RESTAURANT, EDINBURGH (GB)

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PAPER & TEA SHOPS, BERLIN (D)

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DISHOOM KING’S CROSS, LONDON (GB)

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NAMNAM, COPENHAGEN (DK)

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JUGETSUDO, PARIS (F)

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MADE IN CHINA, GOTHENBURG (S)

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PAKTA, BARCELONA (E)

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MATSURI BOETIE, PARIS (F)

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VIET HOA, LONDON (GB)

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SAKE NO HANA, LONDON (GB)

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YOJISU, AIX-EN-PROVENCE (F)

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GRAB EVERYDAY THAI FOOD, LONDON (GB)

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HASHI IZAKAYA & JAPANESE KITCHEN, BERLIN (D)

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MURAKAMI, LONDON (GB)

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PICNIC, MUNICH (D)

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TEA MOUNTAIN, PRAGUE (CZ)

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LONG MARCH CANTEEN I YUMCHA HEROES I GOODTIME GRILL I GLORY DUCK, BERLIN (D)

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NOZOMI SUSHI BAR | VALENCIA (E) Design: Masquespacio, www. masquespacio.com | Team: Ana Milena Hernández Palacios, Nuria Martínez, Virgínia Hinarejos, Jairo Pérez, Ana Diaz; Helix (construction) Materials: paper, wood | Completion: 2014 Contact: Pedro Terceroel Grande 11, 46005 Valencia (E), www.nozomisushibar.com | Owner: Nuria Morell, José Miguel Herrera

Nozomi is the fastest of Japan’s high speed trains, called Shinkansen. The trip from Tokyo to Osaka on this train, which can reach a top speed of around 300 kilometres an hour, takes just two hours and twentyfive minutes. Yet the word “nozomi” also has another original meaning: it can be literally translated as “hope” or “dream”. For Nuria and José Miguel, owners of the Nozomi Sushi Bar in Valencia, the duality of “nozomi” has an essential role in their vision. It represents both 68

modernity as symbolised by the high speed train, as well as emotion and tradition, inherent in the words “hope” and “dream”. Hence, they deliberately chose it as the name for their restaurant. At the entrance to the Nozomi Sushi Bar, which is in the Russafa district near Valencia’s northern railway station, the restaurant‘s logo expresses this duality: its European typography embodies modernity, while the Japanese characters next to it convey tradition. The choice of materials used in the bar further reflects

this duality. The cool exposed concrete of the facade contrasts with the warm-coloured wood marking the entrance. These materials – timber and exposed concrete – also shape the interior. Entering the restaurant, guests find a central wooden cube that divides the space into two corridors and screens its sanitary facilities and storage area. The Spanish firm of Masquespacio, which designed the restaurant, wanted visitors to gain an impression of a

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typical Japanese street, so they included minor marginal details reminiscent of market stalls or chemists. This effect is reinforced by a suspended ceiling made of wooden slats. A bar with a small counter is also concealed behind the cube. This flexible use of space is typical of Japanese architecture, which features sliding partitions constructed either as frames with translucent paper (shoji) or in solid wood (fusuma) that make it easy to re-organise 70

space. The cube and other fixtures in the Nozomi Sushi Bar are reminiscent of this technique. Passing along the “Japanese market street”, guests arrive in the lounge area where food is served. Here the Masquespacio designers hung the entire ceiling with cherry blossoms made of folded paper. Cherry blossom has always been an important symbol in Japanese culture, representing beauty, a new start, and

transience. Cherry trees begin to bloom in mid to late March, first on Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost island. The blooms then spread towards the north-east, reaching Hokkaido, the country’s northernmost island, in early May and bathing all of Japan in a sea of pink and white cherry blossom. It is not only this richly evocative ceiling installation that makes the Nozomi Sushi Bar special. Another seating area, slightly higher than the lounge, provides an alter-

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native to diners wanting more privacy. Here wooden sliding and folding partitions can be opened, halfopened or closed to create the desired atmosphere of maximum seclusion, although the slatted structure of the sliding partitions still offers guests views into the lounge area below. The menus and business stationery, also designed by Masquespacio, are also worth taking a good look at.

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They feature koi carp and cherry blossoms on a blue background – a further reference to Japan’s culture. According to Japanese mythology, a carp (koi) can change into a dragon when it manages to swim up the Huang Ho, the Yellow River, leaping up its waterfalls to reach the Dragon Gate. It is the only fish that can this achieve this feat of strength, so in Japan the koi symbolises strength of purpose, endurance, joy and luck. 71

TUK TUK RESTAURANT RESTAURANT | EDINBURGH (GB) Design: Four by two, Edinburgh Materials: wood, corrugated metal Contact: 1 Leven Street, Edinburgh EH3 9LH (GB), www.tuktukonline.com

The Tuk Tuk Restaurant in Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh has little in common with a tuk-tuk, the motorised version of a Japanese rickshaw, other than perhaps the use of glowing colours, which is typical both for the vehicles popular in Asia and the design of the restaurant. Tuk Tuk, which specialises in Indian street food, is located on the corner of Gilmore Place and Leven Street. 72

Guests enter the Tuk Tuk Restaurant via a brightly painted orange door, which glows as brightly as the letters that hang in the three windows facing the streets to spell out the name of the restaurant. The interior is characterised by brown and grey colours. The wooden flooring with its different colour shades, the counter, the long table tops resting on metal frames, and the wood panelling that partially clads the

ceiling and walls combine to create a warm contrast to the cool, grey walls painted in a matte finish. Colourful accents are provided by the chairs, many of which are also a bold orange, and the turquoise upholstery of the seating benches. Industrially inspired pendant lights in different variations – some with black light shades, others with wire baskets or perforated buckets as shades – provide lighting for the seating areas. Further

touches of colour are also provided by the colourful, seemingly fragile ropes suspended beneath the ceiling. Around 20 different main dishes are available at Tuk Tuk. Many of the tasty meat, fish and vegetable dishes can be combined and shared, similar to tapas, making the meal not just a stimulating culinary experience but indeed a truly sociable affair. 73

PAPER & TEA SHOPS CONCEPT STORES FOR A SPECIALTY TEA BRAND | BERLIN (D) Design: Fabian von Ferrari, www.fabianvonferrari.com | Team: Anna Leipolz Materials Berlin-Charlottenburg: painted maritime pine, painted MDF (furniture); painted wire, Chinese lanterns (wire cages); painted parquetry | Materials Berlin-Mitte: steel painted black, oiled ash wood (shelves, counter); aluminium (sliding doors); paint plaster, green fine clay plaster (walls); painted parquetry | Completion: 2012 (Berlin-Charlottenburg) | 2014 (Berlin-Mitte) Contact: Bleibtreustrasse 4, 10623 Berlin (D), www.paperandtea.com | Owner: Jens de Gruyter, Sven Kröncke (P & T – Paper & Tea)

“The woman had the serenity, unrestricted by caution, of the experienced. Water bubbled in an iron kettle standing on a Kiri wood brazier and with this hot water she prepared the tea. The fact that the sencha was so surprisingly good in quality and flavour for such a place, for such an occasion, put old Eguchi in an even more relaxed mood.”1 In “The house of the sleeping beauties”, a novel written in 1960/61 by the Japanese author and winner of the Nobel prize for literature Yasunari Kawabata, about an ageing man who again feels the fascination of physical love, the almost magical effect of tea in Japanese culture is explained in just a few words. Being served a beautifully-prepared, high-quality tea lifts the spirits and is a sensual experience of a very special kind. This is also the view of Jens de Gruyter. In his Paper & Tea shop in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district he aims to give lovers of finest-quality teas an opportunity to taste and buy the best teas from all over the world. His sales concept is clear: in the shop customers can smell and scrutinise tea in its loose form before it undergoes the brewing process. In his original shop in Charlottenburg, which was designed by young designer Fabian von Ferrari and 74

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opened in 2012, white, yellow, green, oolong, black and pu-erh teas as well as flavoured and herb teas are displayed to be sampled using the senses of smell and taste. The teas are presented on a large sales counter with drawers. Countless simple bowls containing tea leaves and panels with information on individual varieties are organised according to the degree of their oxidation. Customers can smell the samples, find out about their origins and production processes and go to one of the “tea stations” to have a particular tea freshly brewed by the shop staff for tasting. The presentation of the teas is central – both to the senses and to the space itself. Accessories required for tea preparation and beautiful stationery, notebooks and cards frame the setting. They are displayed on a wall shelf that encircles the shop’s individual areas like a clasp. With its sprung floor, the shelf creates a lively background rhythm. Above the angular furniture, geometric wire frames containing traditional Chinese lamps hang from the ceiling and provide functional 76

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lighting. The choice of colours was influenced by the Chinese doctrine of the five elements, which associates black with water, the fundamental element in tea preparation, while white designates the minerals contained by tea. The various colours move between these two poles and create a calm, abstract background against which the subtle natural colours of the tea leaves on

display and the coloured glazes of the accessories can unfold a powerful impact. The success of his original shop proved Jens de Gruyter right, so in the autumn of 2014 he opened a second Paper & Tea shop. In his design for the new shop in the Berlin district of Mitte, planner Fabian von Ferrari sought to express

and reflect the dynamism that the neighbourhood emanates. The main element of the shop in Mitte is the seven metre-long “Wall of Tea”, a shelf on which a range of teas is clearly presented and classified as in a library according to their oxidation level, ranging from white teas through green and yellow, oolong and black up to 77

pu-erh tea. A separate shelf is dedicated to the wide range of “herbals”, herbs and herb mixtures. Here as in Charlottenburg, shades of black and white define the design of the surfaces. Smooth white walls contrast with areas of grey-green plaster made of sand, clay and plant-based starches. The pre-existing oak wood floor was sanded and painted light grey, directly relating it to the exposed concrete ceiling. Technology and lighting cables have been left visible on the ceiling, adding a charming and improvised element to this otherwise minimalist space. Shelves in the Paper & Tea shop in Mitte are attached to the walls by a steel profile substructure, into which the cables for its LED lighting are integrated. Various signs, partitions and painted metal panels can be hung in the ash veneer shelves, so they can be frequently modified and adapted to changes in the range of products on offer. Like the shelves, the furniture is made of ash veneer and white painted metal. The lighting is a highlight in both a literal and metaphorical sense. Neon signs illuminate individual groups of products displayed on the shelves. The company 78

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Alles Neon Berlin made the lights based on a typography specially developed by graphic design firm Sonnenstaub. Sonnenstaub also designed all Paper & Tea’s packaging. There is sensuality wherever you turn in the Paper & Tea shops, although there’s no guarantee you’ll meet a “sleeping beauty” like the one in Kawabata’s novel.

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DISHOOM KING’S CROSS RESTAURANT | LONDON (GB) Design: Macaulay Sinclair, macaulaysinclair.com Materials: exposed brick, steel, tiles, antique furniture from India | Completion: 2014 Contact: 5 Stable Street, London N1C 4AB, www.dishoom.com | Proprietors: Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar

The broader term “Indian cuisine” can encompass a variety of regional cuisines that vary significantly from the Himalayas through to the southern tip of India. A particularly special kind is Parsi cuisine. This religious community of Zoroastrians (followers of the prophet Zarathustra) were originally spread throughout the region of Central Asia until they settled in India. While they were largely assimilated, the Parsis 80

nevertheless managed to uphold some of their own customs and traditions. In the 19th century they established themselves in Bombay, today known as Mumbai. They opened a large number of cafés in the city, where guests could try their various specialties in large hall-like rooms. The Parsi cafés are to this day considered to be meeting places where people of different castes and classes mix. During the 1950s, there were

still around 550 Parsi cafés in Mumbai, yet numbers dropped to around 400 in the 1960s. Today only 15 to 20 remain and it is unclear how many of them will continue to exist in the next generation. To uphold the tradition of these cafés – albeit in a different place – the English restaurateur Kavi Thakrar, together with his cousin Shamil Thakrar and Naved Nasir, opened the Dishoom restaurants in London.

The founders took their inspiration for the food and the interior design directly from Mumbai, where the Thakrars’ grandparents live and Naved Nasir worked as a chef for many years. After the Dishoom Covent Garden opened in 2010 and the Dishoom Shoreditch followed in 2012, a third venue has been located in Stable Street on King’s Cross since November 2014. The restaurant is situated in a

renovated Victorian building and offers space for up to 250 guests over an area of approximately 830 m2. The dining rooms extend across several levels and are divided into different sections. One of them, for example, is the so-called Permit Bar – a reference to the fact that in Bombay, a permit was required to consume alcoholic beverages. On the other hand the design of the juice bar is reminiscent of the Indian A.H. Wheeler railway

station book stores, with walls adorned with election posters recalling the Indian independence movement of the 1920s. On the top level the guests can watch the dishes being prepared in the open kitchen. Upon entering the Dishoom King’s Cross, the first thing you will notice is the generous space inside, which has been redesigned and adapted to its current purpose by architects from the firm Macaulay Sinclair. Differ81

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ent levels, steel staircases and railings, and the brick masonry stripped of its white paint create an industrial charm, further underlined by the colourful, ornamental, Indian-inspired tiled floors. The creators of Dishoom spent several days in Mumbai to choose the furnishings for their new restaurant in King’s Cross. This involved visiting a number of the remaining Parsi cafés to let their atmosphere inspire

the design of the new venue. They rummaged through hundreds of pieces of antique furniture from the early 20th century, which they then had imported to London and restored. Some of the furnishings, such as the benches or the large clock above the steel staircase, are replicas; the latter is an exact copy of the railway station clock in the main station of Mumbai. With turquoise walls and seating cushions, the designers cre-

ated contrasting colourful accents against the red brick and the dark wooden furnishings of the bar and the bench seats in the restaurant area. The kitchen is open daily from morning until night. And here, unlike at the two other Dishooms, you can find the dish Nalli Nihari – a hearty spiced lamb stew. It is served with freshly baked Naan, the flatbread typical for Indian cuisine, and for those willing, the dish can also be finished off with Bheja – lamb’s brain. The dish is traditionally cooked overnight and eaten for breakfast, and is a favourite of workers due to its nutritional value. Carl Brown, who mixes the drinks in the Permit Bar, recently won a Young British Foodies prize for his cocktails at the Dishoom King’s Cross. The prize was awarded for a selection of barrel- and bottleaged cocktails served on ice. One of them is the Sir Jeejeebhoy, which consists of Ceylon arrack, aged in the barrel, lengthened with coconut water and orange bitters. The choice of beer is also impressive and freshly squeezed juices are offered in the juice bar throughout the day, including sugar cane juice with lime and salt – a traditional mix in Mumbai. 83

NAMNAM RESTAURANT | COPENHAGEN (DK) Design: Holmbäck Nordentoft with Christina Bengtsson, www.holmbacknordentoft.dk Materials: tiles, wood, colour | Completion: 2012 Contact: Vesterbrogade 39, Copenhagen (DK), www.restaurantnamnam.dk Owner: Claus Meyer, Michael Pang, Tin Pang

Copenhagen is a lively, design-loving city with an international populace. On Vesterbrogade in the city’s dignified Frederiksberg district, behind the unspectacular facade of a venerable middle-class multi-storey residential building, is the namnam restaurant, which opened in 2012. Graphic designer Christina Meyer Bengtsson and product designer Ulrik Nordentoft, both Danish Design School graduates, redesigned what had once been a butcher’s shop and transformed it into a restaurant. Christina Meyer Bengtsson describes how important it was to both designers to not simply reproduce an Asian atmosphere, but to incorporate western as well as eastern influences to create a new concept. “In Singapore, takeaways are usually furnished with plastic furniture in bright colours and dispense entirely with decorations. We wanted to integrate their effortless momentum into our design and reinterpret the atmosphere of Singaporean restaurants in a modern way.” To prepare for their task, the two designers spent a week scouring Singapore, rummaging around at flea markets and in second hand, antiques and kitchen supplies shops. They then shipped their inspiring “haul” back to Denmark in a container; little Chinese plaster figurines, old rice cookers, huge metal fans, dried beans in pretty bags and all kinds of packaging material ended up in Copenhagen. 84

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Visitors can easily recognise the strong role that colour plays in the restaurant’s design from the street outside. Bright red, lurid pink and radiant orange glow through the plate glass window of the former butcher’s shop. The colours contrast with the shop’s pre-existing, more functional looking, grey and white tiled floor, which Christina Meyer Bengtsson campaigned to have preserved. Along the restaurant’s long wall is a shelf made of patinated wood from the Danish island of Bornholm. Christina Meyer Bengtsson got the idea for the shelf from a bar in Phuket, where along one wall there was just such a large wooden shelf on which all kinds of objects

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were stored. At namnam too, a wooden shelf with a base painted bright red, holds a colourful collection of objects from Singapore. The opposite wall is also clad with patinated wood above its base and more Asiatic curios are collected on small, slightly projecting compartments on the shelf, adding extra splashes of colour. As well as the dominant colours of red, orange and pink, the designers have incorporated turquoise, black and white accents. Ulrik Nordentoft designed the oblong and round tables with their central bases and laminated MDF tops himself and the chairs he created in cooperation with Sebastian Holmbäck. The namnam Chair, with its metal frame and plywood seat

shell, available in a range of colours, has now made it to Milan, where it featured at the furniture fair. Together with some “recycled” school chairs and Arne Jacobsen’s T chairs, the namnam Chairs define the restaurant’s interior. Christina Mayer Bengtsson explains, “The restaurant was designed to look lively and not uniform. Initially we positioned the tables and ninety seats very regularly, then we realised that it looked like a caféteria. The trick was to break up a series of oblong tables with a round one.” The menu at namnam, which is run by Michael and Tin Pang-Larsen, who for a long time had a popular restaurant called Kusine in Dragør, lists dishes from

Singapore as well as Peranakan cuisine. The Peranakan, also called Nyonya, are an ethnic group resulting from intermarriage between Malay women and Chinese men. Peranakan cuisine mixes traditional Chinese preparation and cooking methods with spices and ingredients from Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Typical elements of their cuisine include coconut milk, makrut lime leaves, laksa leaves, tofu, galangal, chilli, turmeric and tamarind, as well as very aromatic pastes made of herbs and spices called sambals. The namnam restaurateurs are very proud of their sambals, which they import directly from Singapore and Malaysia, where Tin Pang-Larsen’s sister makes them herself. 85

JUGETSUDO TEA SHOP | PARIS (F) Design: Kengo Kuma and Associates, www.kkaa.co.jp Material: Japanese cypress, bamboo | Completion: 2008 Contact: 95 Rue de Seine, 75006 Paris (F), www.jugetsudo.fr | Owner: Maruy Ama Nori

Over 160 years have passed since seaweed merchant Maruyama Nori founded the Japanese tea shop “Jugetsudo” in 1854, towards the end of the Edo period (1603–1868). “Jugetsudo” means “the place from where one looks at the moon”. Matsuo Basho associates the moon with tea in one of his haikus. “Sleep on horseback, the far moon in a continuing dream. Steam of roasting tea.“1 To associate the moon’s cool austerity with tea drinking today, you no longer have to read Basho’s haiku: you can do it by visiting the Paris Jugetsudo shop, which is in the once student-filled Saint-Germain-desPrés and Jardin du Luxembourg district, now fashionable and home to many small, exclusive boutiques and shops, at the corner of the Rue de Seine and Rue des Quatre Vents. This is the first Jugetsudo shop outside Japan and as well as selected tea specialities it also still sells edible seaweed, the so-called “Nori sheets”, used for rolling sushi, among other things. Seen from the outside, the shop, in business since 2008, looks at first glance almost unspectacular, but a fleeting first glance is deceptive. Floor-to-ceiling windows and doors afford 86

views of the square sales room inside, whose minimalist clarity is underscored by the highly precise craftsmanship used in the construction of the interior. Kengo Kuma, who designed the Sako no Hana restaurant in London, also designed this Japanese tea shop. Kuma has said of his design for the Paris Jugetsudo, “I wanted to build a space reminiscent of a bamboo for-

est. A different wind blows there and the light is not like the light we are otherwise used to.” To create an impression of a bamboo forest, Kuma had bamboo rods of varying lengths hung from the shop’s ceiling in regular rows. The shop’s two rear walls are also clad with bamboo. This dense “forest” of bamboo rods contrasts with the

space’s minimalist furnishings. There is just one long free-standing, bar-like counter used for sales, at which customers can also sit on one of the five chairs, as at a bar. The countertop is made of Japanese cypress wood. According to Kengo Kuma, the Japanese ascribe very special abilities to the cypress and it plays a special role in the country’s foundation mythology. For the architect it also creates a link with nature. A basin

housing the ritual kettle required in the tea ceremony is set into the counter. Customers can try various Japanese teas here, in combination with a select range of Japanese sweets. Behind the counter is a shelf whose brackets and the indirectly lit floor, on which some products are displayed, are made of dark steel. There is more space for presenting products along the shop’s two display

windows. Featured on shelves fixed between thin steel cables, objects seem almost to hover in the space. The floor below the shelves is covered with large white pebbles, which can be read as an allusion to Japanese garden architecture. Stairs lead down from the front of the shop into a vaulted cellar. Its unplastered walls and minimal artificial lighting create a primal, meditative atmosphere. Japanese tea ceremonies are held regularly in a corner of this space, where bamboo rods repeat the bamboo forest theme of the ground floor sales room. It is easy to imagine that in this atmosphere, remote from the world, something of the original reflections on the ceremony formulated by the great tea master Sen no Rikyu have become reality. He developed the current external form of the tea ceremony under the patronage of Taiko Hideyoshi in the 16th century and was the first to create a separate space dedicated to tea.2

1

Bouvier, Nicolas: Japanische Chronik. Basel 2002, p. 7

2

Okakura, Kakuzo: Das Buch vom Tee. Frankfurt am Main/ Leipzig 1998, p. 55 87

MADE IN CHINA RESTAURANT | GOTHENBURG (S) Design: MAIN OFFICE, www.mainoffice.eu Material: massive oak clear varnished, steel with a clear black powder coating | Completion: 2014 Contact: Tredje Långgatan 9, 413 03 Gothenburg (S), www.madeinchina.nu | Owner: Avenyfamiljen

Gothenburg’s streets look anything but Chinese. Their mainly two- and three-storey buildings built in a closed perimeter block structure, many with red brick facades, are typical of western building traditions. One of these buildings, at Tredje Långgatan 9, used to be a warehouse until the Made in China restaurant opened its doors to lovers of Chinese cuisine, following the completion of the building’s conversion in October 2014. The firm Robach Arkitektur undertook the conversion and renovation of the old building. New restaurants, studios and 88

offices were built in its four thousand square-metre premises and a 140 square-metre space in the middle of Gothenburg is now home to a touch of the Orient. Architect Isabella Eriksson from MAIN OFFICE designed the restaurant’s interior. In creating the new design she concentrated less on the cluttered features and fittings that were for many years typical of the way in which Chinese restaurants in Europe were made to look “Chinese”. Instead, she focused on the old building’s industrial atmosphere, emphasising its rugged,

purist character with the materials she chose. To reinforce the feeling of abundant space in the old warehouse, a wall once separating a delivery zone from the rest was demolished. All the restaurant’s interior walls are plastered and painted dark grey, apart from one. The back wall is decorated with a huge painting in a style reminiscent of pictures from the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, although rather than representing Chinese subjects, it features the wharf and workers of Gothenburg.

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This huge picture can be seen from the street through the large, floor-to-ceiling windows in the restaurant’s dark plastered facade, drawing curious gazes from passers-by. Inside, Made in China’s furniture invites guests to linger, offering long tables with benches and stools and a U-shaped bar with a view through to the kitchen. One table in Made in China is round and can fit a large group around it to eat together under a big hanging 90

lamp. All the furniture is made of light, solid oak, which contrasts with the dark, rough walls. The stools and the bar stand on black painted steel legs. Another attractive detail of the interior is the steel spiral staircase leading from the ground floor up to a mezzanine and the sanitary facilities. One of Made in China’s specialities is dim sum – small dishes originating in Cantonese cuisine. They are usually served in bamboo baskets that can be stacked

for steaming. Each basket contains a lattice, normally made of bamboo, on which the food is arranged. Dim sum consists mainly of filled dumplings that can be filled with every conceivable kind of meat, seafood, eggs or sweet fillings, often seasoned with soy sauce or other sauces. Dim sum, translated literally, means something like “touching the heart”. Made in China’s sophisticated design will certainly also impress the eyes of all who see it.

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PAKTA RESTAURANT | BARCELONA (E) Design: El Equipo Creativo, www.elequipocreativo.com | Team: Oliver Franz Schmidt, Natali Canas del Pozo, Lucas Echeveste Lacy, Cristina Huguet, Mireia Gallego Materials: pine wood (chairs, sake and pisco bar); chestnut, colourful panels (facade); American oak (tables); colourful yarn (looms); oak parquet | Completion: 2013 Contact: Calle Lleida 5, Barcelona (E), www.ca.pakta.es | Owner: Albert Adria, Ferran Adria, Juan Carlos Iglesias, Borja Iglesias, Pedro Iglesias (grupo BCN 5.0)

A Peruvian-Japanese restaurant might seem incredible to all but a few. The Pacific Ocean and many hours of flight time separate Tokyo and Lima, the two countries’ capitals, as well as their cuisines. In Barcelona you can now find out what Japanese-Peruvian fusion cuisine is all about. Together with his brother Albert, Ferran Adrià, famous all over the world for his molecular gastronomy and chef at the much vaunted “El Bulli” until 2011, is now dedicating himself to this new fusion trend at Pakta, which opened in 2013. They bring these apparently strictly separate national cuisines together in their 92

pots and pans. This fusion is expressed in the very name “Pakta”, which means “together” in the Quechua language. The El Equipo Creativo firm, which has designed several restaurants for the Adrià brothers, developed the design concept for Pakta. A small premises in Barcelona near the Avenida del Parallel was chosen as the restaurant’s location. Its offset entrance, with its wooden cladding and partly glazed door, looks fairly unspectacular. When you enter the restaurant however, a space opens up in which the approach of its architects, Oliver Franz and

Natali Canas del Pozo from El Equipo Creativo, becomes clear. They wanted to create a visual link with Peruvian cuisine based on the principles of Japanese cuisine. Starting from this basis, they designed the restaurant’s essential elements, such as the bar, kitchen and furniture, with a reverence for Japanese restaurant architecture. They then entirely enveloped these clear forms in Peruvian colours. A fabric of colourful yarns stretched over wooden frames like looms covers the restaurant’s walls and ceilings like a second skin. In some parts several overlapping wooden frames are attached at various angles, giving the cladding a three-dimensional charac-

ter. The yarn colours are reminiscent of the colours of Peruvian ponchos or hammocks and lend the restaurant’s atmosphere a cheerful, lively aspect. The dining area for guests is very long and narrow, so the architects developed a clear spatial concept, dividing the restaurant into three zones. A sake bar in the entry area serves as a “filter” between the exterior and interior. It is surrounded by a wooden framework structure that functions as a reception desk, display window and visual screen. The restaurant proper is directly behind the reception area. A sushi bar to one side greets guests to this section. It forms a complete

structural contrast to the sake bar, consisting of three marble-clad blocks at which sushi masters perform their work while remaining open to contact with guests. At the end of the space is the square kitchen. Separated by opaque and transparent panes of glass, it still allows for visual contact between the diners and cooks. This concept of dividing the restaurant into three zones helps structure the restaurant’s limited space while creating fluid transitions between them. The lighting concept also follows a sophisticated plan. The El Equipo Creativo designers, working together 93

with BMLD Lighting Design, wanted to use light to highlight the dishes as ingeniously and effectively as possible, designing their lighting concept to present the Peruvian-Japanese fusion cuisine. To do this they combined contrasts of light and dark and shine and transparency. The mainly indirect lighting is concealed behind the weaving frames. Only the pendant lamps hanging over the tables cast a direct light. 94

The weaving frames are definitely the design highlight at Pakta. Their relative positions to one another create a lively yet intimate atmosphere. The frames are alternately more tightly or more loosely stretched with cotton threads and their colour spectrum ranges from warm through to cool. Materials and surfaces were chosen with great care. The frames’ rods and the tables are made of American oak, which with its small irregularities and knot holes makes a vivid impression. The sushi bar is made of marble highlighted by an unpolished surface structure and lively texture. Pakta’s sophisticated atmosphere is a place where guests can enjoy a select and unusual range of dishes, in particular the two menu sequences that are alternately more Peruvian and then more Japaneseinspired.

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MATSURI BOETIE RESTAURANT | PARIS (F) Design: Moreau Kusunoki Architectes, www.moreaukusunoki.com | Team: Nicolas Moreau, Leonor Munch Materials: wood, aluminium | Completion: 2012 Contact: 103 Rue de la Boétie, 75008 Paris (F), www.matsuri.fr | Owner: Matsuri SAS

“...I immediately liked Japanese food”1, ethnologist and anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss once said in an interview. Lévi-Strauss, who first visited Japan at the age of 69, then travelled to the country five times between 1977 and 1988, was delighted by the Japanese “...way of leaving flavours in their pure state, in all their simplicity, of leaving the consumer with the task of organising on his own the range of flavours...”.2 96

You easily can test this organisation of the spectrum of flavours yourself by eating sushi. The filled rice rolls, often rolled in sheets of seaweed, come in many different forms. Among the most popular are maki sushi, which is rolled, and nigiri sushi, small rice snacks formed by hand and covered with fish. Sushi is served with “gari” pickled ginger, wasabi, a spicy radish paste, miso soup and soy sauce. Before eating sushi, you dip it briefly in

soy sauce. After eating it, a small piece of pickled ginger is eaten or miso soup or green tea drunk to clean and clarify the palate for the next flavour. Something of the cleanness and clarity so essential in Japanese cuisine is reflected in the design of the Matsuri Boetie sushi restaurant in Paris, which was completed in 2012. It is in a typical imposing Parisian

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building near the Champs-Élysées. Looking at the restaurant from the street through its large plate glass window, the restaurant’s wooden interior seems almost framed like a picture. Its entrance is to the right. Entering the restaurant, guests can take in the wider context that the part of the picture seen through the window from outside hinted at. The Matsuri Boetie’s long wall and ceiling are covered with light, thin wooden 98

slats. Fixed at regular intervals on a black background, they lend the restaurant a meditative atmosphere. A wall behind the cash desk at the entrance is also clad with these wooden slats. To the left of the cash desk, guests enter the main part of the restaurant, which is dominated by a long sushi conveyor belt formed like a comb with three teeth. Along the “teeth of the comb” are tables and seats for

Entrance Cash desk area Scullery Office Kitchen Dining room

the Matsuri’s guests. The chairs, with their low backrests, are made of single light slats bent into an anatomically comfortable form by means of strong pressure, like classic bentwood chairs. Through an opening cut into the rear wall, diners seated here can see into the kitchen, where master sushi chefs concentrate on their work. The lighting in Matsuri Boetie reiterates the serial

momentum of the wall and ceiling cladding. Regularly spaced, cylindrical white lights hang from the ceiling and, together with indirect lighting from under the tables along the conveyor belt, they bathe the space in a soft, subtle light after dark. A bamboo forest served as the architect’s inspiration. The dense rows of bamboo trunks, light green bamboo leaves and unique light in a bamboo forest have their abstract counterpart in his interpretation for this space. In Matsuri Boetie the question of whether the best way to try and understand another culture is through its cuisine can be explored in depth in the most pleasant way possible.

1

Lévi-Strauss, Claude: Die andere Seite des Mondes. Schriften über Japan. Berlin 2012, p. 148

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VIET HOA RESTAURANT, BAR | LONDON (GB) Design: VONSUNG, www.vonsung.com | Team: Michiko Ito, Jing Chen, Teresa Wong, Oscar Barnes Materials: douglas fir, heart oak, slate, engineered chipboard, brushed steel, plaster, béton brut concrete, aluminium | Completion: 2011 Contact: 70-72 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DP (GB), www.viethoarestaurant.co.uk | Owner: Viet Hoa

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“Hoa” in Vietnamese means “flower” and the Viet Hoa café was one of the first Vietnamese restaurants to “flower” in London in 1995. The family-run restaurant started a trend and was soon followed by many other Vietnamese restaurants opening in the area, so it’s now often called “Little Saigon”. Viet Hoa consists of different sections on three levels: a café on the ground floor, a do-it-yourself barbeque restaurant in the basement, in which guests can prepare their own meals on infrared “grill stations”, and a bar on the first floor. In August 2009 Joseph Sung from the design firm VONSUNG met with the proprietor of Viet Hoa to rework the interior design of the ground floor and the restaurant’s corporate design. They also wanted to reorganise workflows in the restaurant. A flower in the restaurant’s name did not mean they were going to allow wild architectural or organisational outgrowths to flourish in it. The proprietor and Joseph Sung agreed to redesign the café according to the motto “less is more” and to give it a clear, minimalist look. Joseph Sung believes that a building should express its own charisma and its materials should emphasise the space’s effect, not change it. He had areas of the walls, ceiling, and floor clad with light solid European oak, which emanates a subtle woody scent and has an appealing and inviting surface structure. Other areas of the ceiling and one wall of the long dining 100

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area are clad with wooden slats attached to a black background. Hidden between the slats are openings for ventilation and lighting. A door leading to the sanitary facilities and storage areas beyond is also concealed behind wooden slats. Guests dining inside are also screened from the entry and exit by a “partition” made of these slats.

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The Viet Hoa café’s walls, ceiling and floor are designed in warm, muted earthy colours. In contrast, the basement, which diners access via a five metrelong stone staircase, has roughly surfaced black walls and strictly linear cool metallic furniture, which underscores its minimalist character. At the centre of the “Mess” or basement restaurant is a nine metre-

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long central table into the top of which gas burners for cooking food and keeping it hot are set. This is particularly important in Vietnamese cuisine, whose dishes are usually cooked and kept warm briefly and eaten quickly. Steel-framed stools, aluminium chairs, three monolithic concrete tables for individual guests and a wine rack made of a few struts emphasise the sobriety of the minimalist design. Basically cylindrical, downwardstapering black downlights that look as though they make light drop from the ceiling are a particularly unconventional feature of this space. Following the success of the ground floor café, a bar

was furnished and opened on the first floor. A kind of tatami garden extends across its 150 square metres, with the floor covered with artificial turf mats the size of tatami mats. Guests sit on legless wooden Japanese seat shells and can also make use of small tables like portable breakfast trays. In the bar visitors can sample the delicious Vietnamese drinks that complement the dishes cooked in the café on the ground floor. A light installation in the bar creates an impression of flying birds, reinforcing its garden-like appeal. A harmonising design also shapes the Viet Hoa’s new corporate identity. VONSUNG designed a logo featuring a flower, part of the restaurant’s name, and it now

adorns the Viet Hoa’s business stationery, menus, packaging material and staff uniforms. Contrasting with the restaurant’s clear, restrained interior design, the menu seems all the more colourful and invites diners to explore the restaurant’s many Vietnamese entrees and main meals spiced with characteristic herbs such as mint and coriander. It offers dishes such as spring rolls, noodle soups, chicken, fish and beef dishes and typical Vietnamese Phở, a beef broth with rice noodles that the Vietnamese often eat for breakfast for a hearty start to the day. Phở can be served with thin slices of beef, PhởBò, or with chicken, PhởGà. Its many regulars love both the design and the food at Viet Hoa. 103

SAKE NO HANA RESTAURANT | LONDON (GB) Design: Kengo Kuma and Associates, www.kkaa.co.jp Materials: wood (ceiling, walls); bamboo (ceiling, walls, blinds) | Completion: 2007 Contact: 23 St James’s Street, London SW1A 1HA (GB), www.sakenohana.com Owner: Sake no Hana; Goodman Hitchens

In his classic book “Things Japanese”1, the English Japanologist Basil Hall Chamberlain, born in Southsea in 1850, wrote of sake: “There is no suitable European word for this popular intoxicating drink. Both ‘rice beer’ and ‘rice brandy’, as the word has sometimes been translated, give a wrong notion of it. Sake is made of fermented rice and contains 11 to 14 percent alcohol”. Chamberlain‘s book was published in 1890 and 104

although now largely outdated, it was an attempt to describe Japanese history and culture in both its entirety and all its diversity. The Economist Buildings in London, designed by English husband-and-wife architects Alison and Peter Smithson in the early 1960s, are home to The Economist financial magazine as well as to the Sake no Hana Japanese restaurant.

The buildings are on St James’s Street, which runs from Piccadilly to St James’s Palace and is lined by historic 18th century buildings. For this environment, Alison and Peter Smithson designed a complex of three steel-framed buildings whose height fits in with that of neighbouring buildings. Directly on St James’s Street stands a polygonal, four-storey building, which is adjoined by a 15-storey building set slightly back from

the street and an eight-storey residential building in a space secluded from the street. The complex and its height mean that it blends in well with its environment. The three buildings’ facades are defined by large areas of glass broken up by bands of light travertine so they harmonise with the historic buildings around them. Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, head of offices in both Tokyo and Paris, is enthusiastic about the qualities of the Economist Buildings, regarding the ensemble as one of London’s most prestigious urban planning projects. According to Kuma, it’s not just a standard construct but demonstrates how buildings can be harmoniously placed in urban space. The outcome of the Smithsons’ planning, with its specific arrangement of 105

structural components and materials of stone, glass and aluminium, is at once an enigmatic landscape and a lively looking structure. Starting from these observations, Kengo Kuma created his design for the interior of the restaurant, which opened in 2007. Seen from the street, there is little indication of the sushi bar on the ground floor and restaurant and bar on the 1st floor, testifying to Kuma’s respect for and recognition of the existing building. Sake no Hana’s entrance is on the corner of St James’s Street and Ryder Street. Kuma designed its vestibule in dark colours. Black, shiny paintwork decorates the walls. Guests not staying in the sushi bar can access the first floor restaurant using one of the two escalators centrally located in the entry area or the lift. The restaurant’s original floor plan was left unchanged, so no walls were moved or removed, although this is 106

hard to surmise from its zoning. The space is divided into different sections: in the zone along the front windows guests sit and eat on dark tatami mats in the traditional Japanese way. There is also an eleven metrelong sake bar and an area with benches, chairs and tables along one wall. Behind the bar is also a private dining room with seating for nine people.

A lattice structure made of wood and bamboo that clads the ceiling and areas of wall is the eye-catching feature that links the zones together. The construction of the lattice’s light, broad beams and bamboo poles is arranged in the manner of traditional Japanese temples. Ten Japanese craftsmen created the ceiling with the same amount of care that Kengo Kuma took in design-

ing the restaurant’s furniture. The precise construction of the ceiling, walls and furniture and selection of materials revives Japanese traditions in the middle of London and links Alison and Peter Smithson’s architecture with Kengo Kuma’s work. Sake no Hana’s lighting, with its interplay of light and shadow, also recalls Japanese traditions. Screens 107

shade the four metre-high windows on the restaurant’s south side. Here Kuma chose as his material thinly-cut, two-ply overlapping bamboo, whose colour and opacity makes it reminiscent of traditional Japanese “sudare”. These traditional Japanese blinds or screen-like sliding wood or bamboo partition elements are used to protect openings in buildings from sun, rain or wind. Light falling through the lowered bamboo blinds from outside creates a moiré effect inside Sake no Hana. During the hours of darkness recessed lighting highlights the blinds at various points from below. More than seven years after it opened in 2007, the 600 square-metre Sake no Hana is now one of London’s top addresses for fans of Japanese cuisine, thanks to its diverse menu offering a range of meticulouslyprepared dishes. Of course it also serves sake, which guests can taste at special events. These offer participants insights into the drink’s history and occasions for drinking it, as well as seven different sakes for tasting. Hopefully those sampling the sake will confirm what Basil Hall Chamberlain wrote of the drink: “Strangely enough, European heads seem less affected by sake than those of the Japanese.”2

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1

Chamberlain, Basil Hall: ABC der japanischen Kultur. Ein historisches Wörterbuch. (Things Japanese). Zurich 1990, p. 544f.

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ibid., p. 545

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YOJISU DELICATESSEN, RESTAURANT | AIX-EN-PROVENCE (F) Design: Studio Fremont, www.studio-fremont.com Materials: concrete, wood, steel, textiles | Completion: 2012 Contact: 130 Rue Bastide de Verdaches, 13290 Aix-En-Provence (F), www.yoji.fr | Owner: Tran Van Ba

It seems impossible to tell the story of the Yojisu delicatessen and restaurant without also mentioning its Vietnamese proprietor, Tran Van Ba. A professional cook, Tran discovered his enthusiasm for Japanese cuisine at an early age. Thirty years ago he brought his passion for Japan’s culinary temptations to the southern French town of Aix-en-Provence, opening the Yoji restaurant in the town’s historic centre. It soon became one of southern France’s top addresses for Japanese food lovers. Motivated by his success, Tran Van Ba decided to open another restaurant, Yojisu, in what initially seemed the less attractive commercial district of Aix-les-Milles.

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In this business district, dominated by offices, supermarkets and warehouses and a TGV railway station, Tran developed a new concept for an existing sales hall together with the architect Olivier Fremont. They integrated a restaurant and shop into the eight hundred square-metre space, which also offers plenty of space for cooking courses. In his courses Tran Van Ba intro-

duces participants to the art of preparing sashimi and the fundamentals of the art of Japanese cuisine. Its opulence and freshness can be experienced to the fullest extent here because all the fish served by Tran Van Ba’s restaurants is processed centrally in the same building. A major role in the concept Olivier Fremont developed is played by steel-framed pergolas that divide the huge

space into zones like a market hall, without detracting from its authentic warehouse character. These pergolas provide a roof over different areas of the restaurant: its groups of tables, counter and sales areas are variously designed according to their function. The restaurant area ceiling is lined with rough timber slats that create a pleasant dining atmosphere. The ceiling 111

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of the open kitchen with its encircling counter is completely covered with solid timber cladding to conceal the kitchen technology. In the sales area shelves are hung in steel frames on the walls so that goods can be appealingly displayed for sale. In the restaurant area partially upholstered horizontal bars set between verti112

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cal columns serve as backrests for guests seated on benches. Lights with a Japanese look hang from the ceiling here. This entire shop and restaurant was planned according to the same principle as modular furniture. Cool black steel and wood are the predominant materials.

The tables and chairs are made of light wood, the latter upholstered with light brown and grey fabric, providing an attractive contrast to the black steel. Patinated wooden planks divide the space and provide a further emphatic contrast, as do the quarry blocks marking the corners of the counter displays. Variously shaped pendant lights that focus light on the tables and some delicately painted rice paper lights bathe the space in a softer light, rounding out the interior design. The grey polished concrete floor looks functional and harmonises with the light wood and black steel of the pergolas. The shop sells typical Japanese foods, including various noodles, tofu and seaweed sheets, typical condiment sauces such as soy sauce and teriyaki and mirin (rice wine), as well as more exotic products such as Japanese whisky. A range of objects such as ceramics and different kinds of knives – regarded by Japanese cooks with reverence – completes the range of goods on offer. Yoijisu’s menu includes dishes like sushi and maki as well as hot dishes such as noodle soups and tempura. If you want to prepare them yourself, you can learn how in one of Tran Van Ba’s cooking courses. 113

GRAB EVERYDAY THAI FOOD RESTAURANT | LONDON (GB) Design: Mansikkamäki+JOY (today: AGO Architects), www.agoarchitects.com Team: Lee Pollock, Lifeforms Design; Marios Pompouris, Chiller Box Materials: wooden pallets, corrugated zinc, galvanised metal tubing | Completion: 2011 Contact: GRAB (Old Street Branch), 5 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4AQ (GB), www.grabfood.co.uk Owner: Grab Food

Thai cuisine has incorporated a wide range of influences from other countries, such as China and India, yet its dishes are definitely all its own. Anyone who has ever enjoyed the subtly spiced flavour experience that is a good “Tom Kha Gai”, a very popular type of chicken soup balanced with coconut milk, chilli, fish sauce, fresh coriander and galangal, can attest to this cuisine’s unique attractions. Its many yellow, red and green spice pastes, which although they are called “curry paste” contain not curry powder, but a mixture of different spices, are further examples of the diverse “firework of flavours”, in the truest sense, that make up Thai cuisine. Four Thai friends have set out to bring the diverse flavours of their country’s food to guests at their small restaurant, the GRAB Everyday Thai Food, near Old Street tube station in London. From the outset, their declared aim was to make their uncomplicated, fast Thai food, slightly adapted to western palates, an affordable and healthy delight for as many people as possible to enjoy – the same as in the many small restaurants in the Thai capital Bangkok. The architecture firm of Mansikkamäki+JOY, also based in London, translated the friends’ ideas into an architectural concept for the GRAB Everyday Thai 114

Food. For their design of this small, oblong space, the firm chose inexpensive materials that showcase their artisanal character. A wall to the right of the entrance is clad with wooden Euro pallets. In front of it are a refrigerated counter and a longer counter also clad with untreated wooden planks. The fixed rows of wooden planks of the counter and the pallets radiate a raw rigour that is subtly dissipated by their rough surfaces.

Corrugated metal panels clad the front area walls. The tabletops are also made of rows of single wooden boards on metal bases of scaffolding recycled from the conversion. Diners sit at the tables on plastic stools, a quintessential element of the Thai street food scene. Big light globes dangling from the ceiling on red and blue cables illuminate the space and form a network overhead, a further eye-catching feature.

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HASHI IZAKAYA & JAPANESE KITCHEN BAR, RESTAURANT | BERLIN (D) Design: affect studio, www.affectstudio.com | Team: Bjørn Hoffmann, Sofia Borges (concept, design, programming, planning, supervision); Ayaka Okutsu, Nobuhiko Murayama, Yota Okuyama, Mariana Riscado, Iohanna Nicenboim, Joseph Campbell, Camille Laporte, Charlotte Colgate, Marta Laviña Trujillo, Eduardo Conceição, Elisabeth Delfs, Per Warberg, Aida Gómez, Damien Murphy, Nathan Landers (implementation) Materials: bamboo, polyamide fibre, canvas, wood, rice | Completion: 2012 Contact: Rosenthaler Str. 63, 10119 Berlin (D), www.hashi-kitchen.de | Owner: Ethan Ruo Xu

Since the fall of the Wall, Berlin has been pulsing with new energy. The Mitte district is one of the most prominent “laboratories” in this booming city, whose creative potential has become an international phenomenon. Enthusiastic experimentation and an openness to new things is still clearly apparent in many corners of Berlin, so it’s perhaps not surprising then that Berlin’s first “izakaya”, the Hashi Izakaya & Japanese Kitchen, 116

opened in Rosenthaler Strasse in 2012. “Hashi Mori” means “chopstick forest”, while the Japanese word “izakaya” is probably best translated as “pub”. The focus here is on testing and tasting a wide range of different dishes. There are no entrees or main courses in the usual sense, just good sake, cold beer and “Japanese tapas”, to be consumed in no particular order. After completing a business administration degree,

Hashi Izakaya & Japanese Kitchen’s proprietor, Ethan Ruo Xu, lived in Vancouver for a long time before returning to the city he grew up in with a plan to open a particular kind of restaurant that was still lacking in Berlin. Xu had experienced several izakayas in Vancouver, so he knew that the Japanese “fast food” they typically serve had much more to offer than just sushi. He wanted to bring this food’s diversity, still unknown in

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Berlin, to his home city. Embarking on a search for a suitable home for his izakaya, he found premises still operating as an office supplies shop in Rosenthaler Strasse and was immediately enthusiastic about the location. Architects Bjørn Hoffmann and Sofia Borges from affect studio developed an ambitious interior design concept for Hashi Izakaya & Japanese Kitchen. “We wanted to create a space that would make the restaurant’s range of food and drink clearly legible, would have a visual and symbolic quality and would also offer

guests a tactile and sensory experience”, is how Hoffmann describes the fundamental ideas behind their design. To implement their design, the existing shop was gutted and the technology required for a restaurant was integrated into the space. Entering from busy Rosenthaler Strasse, guests are greeted by an open restaurant space seating around fifty people. A bar and open kitchen and food preparation area are aligned along the long back wall. Despite the floor to ceiling glass walls on two sides, the 117

restaurant emanates a cosy friendliness and a feeling of peaceful security. A filigree ceiling installation helps create this impression. It was modelled using a digital design process on a computer in 3D and carefully handcrafted to create an atmospheric whole. The installation was built up using rows of Asian chopsticks hanging on nylon threads and forms a kind of baldachin, a series of invisible domes suspended in two zones of space above the groups of tables. The ceiling 118

installation is made up of 13,454 carefully hand-drilled, hand-dyed and hand-tied bamboo chopsticks. It took 14 skilled workers, working by hand for over a month and using 57,400 knots and over 20 kilometres of nylon thread, to create this sculpture, which has become the izakaya’s trademark. The chopsticks, all the same length and coloured in various shades of yellow and brown, produce an interesting interplay of light and shadow through the various lengths they hang at and

the lightness of their delicate materials. The effect is to lend the space a lively yet restrained dynamism. Ethan Ruo Xu is proud that his guests often photograph the ceiling and marvel at this installation. The Hashi Kitchen has a friendly look. The wooden panelling lining the facade, custom-made, slightly concave and convex tabletops and elements coloured with tones from the warm end of the spectrum, especially a yellow shading playfully into ochre, contribute to its

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overall look. The lighting concept intensifies this effect, with spotlights set amidst the chopstick ceiling sculpture bathing the space in effective light. A painstaking attention to detail is an essential element of the restaurant’s success. Textured wallpaper, which on closer inspection seems to depict a forest and which the indirect lighting renders more plastic, adorns its end wall. Seen close up, this “forest”, drawn by hand on computer, transforms into a line drawing that dissolves into pure structure. This visual dissolution effect underscores the magical character of the overall concept. Immersed in this artistically created yet natural atmosphere, guests can enjoy Hashi Izakaya & Japanese Kitchen’s countless light dishes. The best idea is to order several small dishes in succession to gain an impression of the way in which Japanese cuisine seeks to create a balance among diverse structures and flavours. 119

MURAKAMI RESTAURANT | LONDON (GB) Materials: wood, steel, exposed brick, plants | Completion: 2014 Contact: 63-66 St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4JS London (GB), murakami.london

In London’s St Martin’s Lane, between Leicester Square and Covent Garden, Murakami can be found – a Japanese restaurant that serves sushi, sashimi, tempura and specialities from the “robata” grill. Entering the restaurant, you find yourself in the generouslysized dining room, which is filled with light and inviting during the day thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows. To both the left and right of the entrance are seats with views of the happenings outside. Extending fur120

ther, the dining room is divided into two zones by an axis of table areas. On one side is the sushi bar, where diners can watch the sushi masters at work, and on the other is the bar, which extends across the full length of the room with the grill located at the end. In the rear of the room, slightly separated from the sushi bar and the regular bar, are more seats ideal for small groups. Here the moss-covered rear wall is particularly eye-catching, and together with the plant troughs in

the middle of the room, a natural atmosphere is created in Murakami. The open space is divided into zones by light grey steel beams and wooden grids hanging from the ceiling, with various decorative elements and lights contained within the construction. An extremely thorough and balanced combination of materials and colours is visible throughout the entire room; the hexagonal grey squares along the bar are

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combined with light-coloured wooden floorboards underneath the tables to create a stimulating play of contrasts. The wall decorations range from whitewashed exposed bricks to grey exposed concrete with wooden panelling, right through to the living moss wall, which is conserved using glycerine. The lighting concept also plays with shifting effects – industrial lamps and glass pendant lights provide direct light for the tables, while strictly symmetrically arranged down-

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lights in the bar area zone reveal the work of the sushi and grill masters in their best light, in the truest sense of the words. Further contrasts are created by the different kinds of seating: soft upholstered sofas, chairs with shells made of hard plastic, and wooden bar stools are placed next to each other in Murakami as if it were a given. The attention to detail with which the restaurant was designed can be felt and seen everywhere. 123

PICNIC RESTAURANT, BAR | MUNICH (D) Design: Markus Härle, www.visuellart.de Team: Luci Härle Materials: steel, oak wood, concrete grouting, glazed stoneware Completion: 2014 Contact: Barer Strasse 48, 80799 Munich (D), www.picnicen.de Owner: Markus Härle

During good weather guests are tempted in from the street by the vintage chairs made of green steel pipes and matching stools with canary-yellow round seats that extend a friendly invitation to enter PicNic. Markus Härle’s restaurant, previously operating in Munich’s Türkenstrasse under the name Pavesi PicNic, has now moved to nearby Barer Strasse, opposite the Neue Pinakothek museum. Guests entering through the front door, which is hung on the inside with a transparent, bright yellow curtain of wide plastic strips, find themselves in a quadratic, 55 square-metre dining room. A bar near the front welcomes visitors and is beautifully highlighted by three yellow-shaded lamps hanging from the ceiling. Behind it is the half-open kitchen area, where you can catch a glimpse of dishes being prepared. Like the stool seats, entrance curtain and lampshades, the upholstery of the benches surrounding the areas of the dining room to the left and right of the entrance is a glowing yellow. PicNic’s design is otherwise fairly restrained and sober, with its grey floor and walls clad with slate panels, on which the daily menu is written. Eleven tables offer seating for around forty guests, who can sit either on the benches or the vintage chairs and stools and taste their way through PicNic’s fascinating menu. 124

The restaurant specialises in a select range of dishes consisting mainly of plant-based ingredients, although meat is by no means neglected. Markus Härle tracked down and developed the recipes on his travels in Thailand, Nepal and India. One speciality on the menu are “momos” – small, filled Tibetan balls like Chinese dumplings.

As much of a speciality as the “momos”, curries and salads on the PicNic menu are the slender square ceiling lights that Markus Härle, a trained graphic designer, designed himself. The lighting can be dimmed below and is coloured above, so various colours of light can be used to modify the restaurant’s atmosphere to fit in with the mood.

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TEA MOUNTAIN TEA SHOP | PRAGUE (CZ) Design: a1architects, www.a1architects.cz | Team: Lenka Křemenová, David Maštálka Materials: raw ash planks (furniture), rough plaster containing black charcoal pieces (walls) | Completion: 2013 Contact: Křižíkova 488/115, Karlín, 186 00 Prague 8 (CZ), www.teamountain.cz | Owner: Martin Špimr

“Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage.”1 These words open “The Book of Tea”, by Kakuzo Okakura, the son of a samurai family born in 1862. Published in 1906, his book is still a classic. In China, tea is still regarded both as a drink to enjoy and as something healthy. China was the birthplace of tea culture, not Japan, where Okakura wrote his book. The earliest origins of tea can no longer be proven, but more than two centuries before the Christian era the Chinese Qin dynasty imposed a tax on tea, which – as Okakura writes – was regarded as medicine. It only became a drink to enjoy during the Tang dynasty (618-907), when tea was increasingly drunk at the imperial court and introduced into the upper classes. It was during this period too, that monks in Buddhist monasteries began drinking tea during their often hour-long meditations to help them stay awake – an effect produced by the theine in tea. During the Tang dynasty the Chinese also began to export tea to Korea and Japan. Life without this diverse drink is now unthinkable in many countries and cultures. Green or fermented, in powder or leaf form, loose or in bags, and now also in capsules: much can and has been said and written about teas, tea cultures and tea drinkers. 126

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Tea Mountain is the name of a shop completed in Prague in December 2013, offering an exquisite range of high-quality teas from Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan and China. The Prague firm of A1 Architects, which was commissioned to design the shop, developed a two-part concept for Tea Mountain after intensive discussions with the owners. A simple logo depicting a T tilted to the right and enclosed by a circle identifies the shop from the street. The logo’s clear, sophisticated design establishes a 128

harmony with the interior design concept of the shop and café. Two large openings establish visual links between the shop’s inside and outside, attracting the attention of passers-by to Tea Mountain. Inside visitors find a space divided into a light and dark zone, with a round arch in an existing vault marking the transition. The dark grey, almost black area that customers initially enter offers seating and tables where they can try the tea sold in Tea Mountain in peace and quiet. Dark walls create

an atmosphere of cosy security. The architects mixed pieces of coal and straw into the plaster covering the walls in the café area of Tea Mountain, giving their smooth surface a rough structure that evokes subtle echoes of the organic, living world. Wooden tables and seats also emanate naturalness. The stools’ black legs contrast with their light, round seats and the light tables also have dark legs. Seats and tables are illuminated by thick blackened tree trunks in their rough natural state, which are “clamped” vertically between

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the floor and ceiling. Irregular golden slits set into the tree trunks shed a warm, cosy light on the tables. In contrast, the architects kept the sales area beyond the round arch in light colours. Extending along two thirds of the room’s length, the sales and display counter rests on a stack of raw ash wood planks of various lengths. Shelves next to and behind the sales counter, on which teas served in the shop are prepared and offered for sale, are also made of this wood. The counter is lit by five regularly spaced spherical white matt glass

pendant lights. With its high stools, the counter almost has the character of a bar. Details such as the limestone tray set into its surface surprise visitors exploring the shop and cafe. Various tea utensils, which are also for sale, are displayed on rough tree trunks of different heights that stand in the window facing the street. The interplay of light and dark, sophisticated use of various materials and calm spatial effect of Tea Mountain demonstrate the architects’ success in translating something of the “spirit of tea” into the architecture. It

is the many minor details that contribute to the impressive overall effect. “Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others”2, wrote Okakura. Something of the wisdom of this aphorism is reflected in the design of Tea Mountain. 1

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LONG MARCH CANTEEN | YUMCHA HEROES GOODTIME GRILL | GLORY DUCK RESTAURANTS | BERLIN (D) Design: ett la benn – bischoff, dürler & gooßen gbr, www.ettlabenn.com Materials: recycled wood, carved panels, shading netting (Long March Canteen) | acrylic glass, linoleum, wood (Yumcha Heroes) | copper sheeting and mesh, oak wood (Goodtime Grill) | textiles, wood, carpet (Glory Duck) | Completed: 2012 (Long March Canteen) | 2009 (Yumcha Heroes) | 2013 (Goodtime Grill) | 2013 (Glory Duck) Contact: Long March Canteen, Wrangelstr. 20, 10997 Berlin (D), www.longmarchcanteen.com | Yumcha Heroes, Weinbergsweg 8, 10119 Berlin (D), www.yumchaheroes.de | Goodtime Grill, Kurfürstendamm 90, 10709 Berlin (D), www.goodtime-grill.de | Glory Duck, Sonntagstr. 31, 10245 Berlin, www.gloryduck.de | Owner: Axel Burbacher, Guan Guan Feng (Long March Canteen, Yumcha Heroes) | The Hang Suparman, Willem Salim, www.goodtime-grill.de (Goodtime Grill) | Nguyen Truong Giang (Glory Duck)

“As we all know, wine doesn’t taste half as good in your living room as it does when you drink at sunset by the sea. Atmosphere is essential to our experience of flavour”, says Oliver Bischoff, product designer, founder and co-proprietor of the Berlin design firm ett la benn. He’s an expert on creating very special atmospheres in bars and restaurants. With his colleagues Danilo Dürler and Johannes Gooßen, Bischoff specialises in “decoding dining cultures and translating them into innovative and intensive spaces and experiences”. 130

The Long March Canteen in Berlin is perhaps the most impressive example of the way they work. The restaurant in Kreuzberg, which brings the atmosphere of a Chinese cookshop to today’s cool Berlin, is easy to miss at first glance. A dark mesh extends over the restaurant windows, through which a separation between inside and out is revealed – hermetic from the outside, but quite clear inside. Entering the Long March Canteen, you arrive in a long corridor flanked by semi-transparent bamboo mats

and wooden lattice panels. Large blue Chinese characters in neon light illuminate this area, which is otherwise, in dark colours. From here visitors reach the large dining room, which is shrouded in an artfully created half-light. The space offers seating for around 116 guests at long and round tables and its subtle lighting means that you barely notice the restaurant’s considerable size. Glass lanterns that the designers imported from China, indirect lighting falling from spotlights in the ceiling, and decorative pictures of Asian subjects

on the walls all contribute to the Long March Canteen’s unique atmosphere. In the middle of the space, visible from all the tables, is a steaming station with small, woven bamboo baskets in which variously filled dumplings are served. Steam rises from the station and is reflected in red light radiated by the refrigerators, making the steaming station the atmospheric centre of the Long March Canteen. Through the semi-transparent lattice panels in the corridor guests can catch glimpses of the cooks. You

could almost be in China. Yet the designers didn’t want the restaurant to be regarded as a one-to-one translation of a Chinese cookshop. That, says Oliver Bischoff, wouldn’t work in Germany, where people would probably not want to eat in a typical Chinese cookshop because they would find it uncomfortable, too loud and too chaotic. The ett la benn designers did not want to export a piece of China to Germany; rather they wanted to recreate the atmosphere of a traditional night market, so

aesthetics play a major role. The restaurant must satisfy guests’ expectations and offer them a large enough projection surface for them to recognise or expand their own ideas of China. Oliver Bischoff explains that what guests can see of the restaurant’s overall planning is just the tip of the iceberg. Areas for preparing, storing and cooling food, which are usually hidden to guests, demand particular attention. In the Long March Canteen guests can sense something of the activities going on in the back131

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ground through the semi-transparent bamboo lattices. The steaming station’s design also reveals the logistics of this planning: round holes in the kettle cover conduct steam into the steaming baskets, from where it then escapes and forms a cloud, which is lit by a red light before vanishing into the extractor. 132

The ett la benn designers often import specific equipment or develop special structures for their designs to satisfy the cooks. This can sometimes be an enormous technical challenge, because basically, says Oliver Bischoff, every cook wants something different for his or her kitchen.

In Yumcha Heroes in Weinbergsweg in Berlin’s Mitte district, the design focus is on strong colours and contrasts. Guests enter the small restaurant by crossing a front terrace, passing groups of tables. The restaurant’s colours announce themselves in the bright yellow neon sign above the entrance door. Yellow is one of several

ing lamps’ design is another striking detail of the restaurant. Their round forms, somewhat reminiscent of huge sieves or screens, are wrapped with overlapping strips of a semi-transparent, white fabric like the strip curtains often found in doctors’ practices and offices; they produce a subdued light and their graphic look has a distinct visual appeal.

striking colours in the concept of this dumpling restaurant, whose name incorporates the Chinese word for “tea drinking”. Guests entering Yumcha Heroes are immediately aware of the purple pane of glass separating the dining room from the kitchen area. The glass allows the up to thirty guests inside as well as those

outside to watch dumplings being made, yet its colour also creates distance between the kitchen and dining room. Another even stronger area of colour is the corridor to the stairs leading down into the basement, which is painted yellow. It leads to the toilets, which are also all in yellow, down to the smallest detail. The ceil-

In all ett la benn’s designs for restaurants the organisation of the kitchen plays a decisive role, or, as Oliver Bischoff says, “The plate is the platform; we usually develop everything from there. So we go from inside to out and not the other way around. Most architects position the kitchen in the space, but we build the space around the kitchen.” This core idea is evident in the Goodtime Grill on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm. At first glance the restaurant looks refined and restrained. For the Goodtime Grill ett la benn used muted colours and cool materials combined to create a calm spatial atmosphere. Here too, spotlights in the ceiling illuminate the tables and plates while the rest of the space is indirectly lit. 133

The restaurant is divided into two parts: at the entrance is a bar and lounge area with a patisserie, then guests take two steps down into the restaurant, which features an open grill as its central point. Adjoining the patisserie is the bar. The dark space with anthracite coloured carpets on the walls provides for subdued acoustics and a pleasant bar atmosphere. At the heart of the Goodtime Grill is its dining room, which can accommodate around 80 guests. Here guests can enjoy sophisticated Asian cuisine. In the dining room dark shades of umber, chestnut and ebony alternate with strong tones such 134

as red, copper and the orange of the benches and chair coverings. In designing the surfaces too, ett la benn made use of a play of contrasts: glass, grey marble and slate contrast with warm materials such as the brushed, grey-brown oak wood of the tables. Translucent copper-coloured mesh curtains screen the windows to the street and divide the space, creating a comfortable atmosphere among individual groups of seats. The dining room’s focus and central element is the “robata” grill. This type of grill was developed by fisher-

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men on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido who would gather around this little fireplace, which served as both a heater and cooking fire. It grills foods slowly at high temperatures. Because the fishermen also wanted to cook on their boats, they would often take the charcoal with them in stone containers. Once only locally known, the robata grill is now very popular all over Japan and around the world and can still often be found on the island of Hokkaido and in the fishing town of Kushiro. The grill works by heating special coals to temperatures up to 1,000 degrees, making this coal hotter than any other. The back wall of the Goodtime Grill’s grill station is clad in polished copper and its ceiling is partly clad with copper mesh. Stairs lead down to the toilets in the basement, where a corridor with white walls, floor and ceiling seems to dissolve spatial boundaries. Regularly spaced light boxes provide sufficient lighting. 135

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All the components of the corporate design created for the Vietnamese Glory Duck Restaurant in Berlin’s Friedrichshain district are also interconnected. A cartoon duck has become its “heraldic animal”, appearing on the awnings outside, on the restaurant’s website and menus, and forming part of its lighting concept. A large neon version of the duck is mounted on the wall by the entrance, highly visible from both sections of the restaurant, diffusing a cheerful red light into the space.

Seen from outside, the restaurant looks almost unspectacular, but inside it reveals various striking design effects. Its designers laid an interlocking grid over the restaurant’s L-shaped floor plan, which converges in two virtual vanishing points. The grid lines divide up the space and are made visible by textile panels hanging at intersecting right angles from the ceiling. The bar is at the front of the restaurant, the section closest to the street. A frame-like partition forms the front counter and its open structure makes

the space look larger. Photo wallpaper covers one rear wall, dominating the room. The photo, rendered in muted shades, shows a panorama of urban Vietnam. Its atmosphere continues in three dimensions in the restaurant space, with its light globes and authentic looking furniture. At the interface between the restaurant’s two sections the designers have provided a showcase for real ducks, with roast Peking ducks hanging in a display window as another authentic element. 137

APPENDIX ADDITIONAL PROJECTS

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PHOTO CREDITS

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ADDITIONAL PROJECTS ASIA CALYPSO RESTAURANT & LOUNGE 1218 Middle Yan‘an Road, Jing An Kerry Centre, West Nanjing Road, Shanghai 200040 (CN) www.calypsoshanghai.com MRS. POUND 6 Pound Lane, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong (HK) www.mrspound.com PAK LOK CHIU CHOW RESTAURANT 23-25 Hysan Ave Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (HK) www.pakloh.com MATSUYA Derech Menachem Begin 7, Ramat Gan (IL) www.matsuya.co.il CHOP CHOP STREET WOK Ibn Gabiro St 20, Tel Aviv (IL) TSUKIMICHI 3-26 Nishinakasu, Chūō-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka 810-0002 (J) www.facebook.com/tsukimichi2013 KUROGANE 2-7 Nagarekawacho, Naka-ku, Toyo Perfume Nagaregawa 2F, Hiroshima 730-0028 (J) www.kuro-gane.jp KANOYA RESTAURANT 4-18 Shinshigai Chuo-Ku, Matsushita Bldg. 4F, Kumamoto 860-0803 (J) SHATO HANTEN 3-6-4 3-6-4 Hommachi, B1F Hommachi Garden City, Osaka 541-0053 (J) www.shatohanten.com

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Tetchan Yakitori Bar, Tokio (J), Kengo Kuma and Associates

SHUN SHOKU LOUNGE Grand front desk Osaka Umekita-hiroba 1F, 4-1, Ofukacho, Kita-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka 530-0011 (J) JUGETSUDO KABUKIZA 4-12-15 Ginza, 5F Kabukiza Tower, Chuo, Tokyo 104-0061 (J) TETCHAN YAKITORI BAR 1 Chome-1 Kichijōji Honchō, Musashino-shi, Tokyo 180-0004 (J)

Mrs. Pound, Hongkong (HK), NC Design & Architecture

Miss Ko, Paris (F), Philippe Starck

EUROPE RA’MIEN Gumpendorferstraße 9, 1060 Vienna (A) www.ramien.at JACKIE SU Langenstraße 10–12, 28195 Bremen (D) www.jackiesu-bremen.de FEI SCHO Kolosseumstraße 6, 80469 Munich (D) www.feischo.com

FRAU LI Franziska-Bilek-Weg 1, 80339 Munich (D) www.frauli-muenchen.de

PING PONG WEMBLEY UNIT 68-70, London HA9 0FD (GB) www.pingpongdimsum.com

LEDU – HAPPY DUMPLINGS Theresienstraße 18, 80333 Munich (D) www.ledu-dumpling.de

ROSA’S SOHO 48 Dean Street, London W1D 5BF (GB) www.rosasthaicafe.com

RICE Kohlstraße 2, 80469 Munich (D) www.restaurant-rice.de

ROTI CHAI 3 Portman Mews South, London W1H 6HS (GB) www.rotichai.com

KUO Madrazo 135, 08021 Barcelona (E) www.restaurantekuo.com

YOOBI 38 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LL (GB) www.loveyoobi.com

UMO Hotel Catalonia Barcelona Plaza, Plaza España, 6-8, 08014 Barcelona (E) www.restauranteumo.com

WU TAIYO Viale Monza, 23, 20127 Milano (I) www.monza.wutaiyo.com

MISS KÔ 49/51 Avenue George V, 75008 Paris (F) www.miss-ko.com KANPAI 8-10 Grindlay Street, Edinburgh EH3 9AS (GB) www.kanpaisushi.co.uk KHUSHI’S 10 Antigua Street, Edinburgh EH1 3NH (GB) www.khushis.com KOYA BAR 50 Frith Street, London W1D 4SQ (GB) www.koyabar.co.uk

KUKUMUKU Vokiečių g. 6, LT-01130 Vilnius (LT) www.kukumuku.lt TUK TUK – THAI STREET FOOD BAR Mokotowska 17, Warsaw (PL) www.facebook.com/tuktukbar DARDENIA FISH + SUSHI GÖKTÜRK İstanbul Cad. Country Life Sitesi. Dükkan No:7-8 Göktürk/Eyüp, Istanbul (TR) www.dardenia.com FAR EAST, MAH. İstinye Bayırı Cad. İstinyepark Alışveriş Merkezi No:11 D:256, Istanbul (TR) www.fareast.com.tr

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AUTHORS

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CHRISTIAN SCHITTICH (EDITOR)

GIN-YOUNG SONG

Dipl.-Ing. Architect. Editor in chief of DETAIL magazine since 1998. His many trips to Asia over the past three decades have lead him from experiency yak butter tea in remote nomad tents to business dinners in exotic sea food restaurants in China and Japan.

Studied empirical cultural, religion and German studies in South Korea and Germany. Since 2013 research assistant at the Institut für Sozialanthropologie und Empirische Kulturwissenschaft – Populäre Kulturen (Institute for social anthropology and empirical cultural studies – Popular culture) at the University of Zurich. She was awarded her doctorate for her work on South Korean appropriation practices involving coffee in various areas of everyday life.

NAOMICHI ISHIGE

STEFAN STILLER

Studied cultural anthropology and agricultural sciences. Specializes in ethnological and comparative studies of food, clothing and living habits in Oceania, East Africa and Asia. Pioneer of food culture research in Japan. From 1977 to 2003 Professor and from 1997 to 2003 Director-General at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka and is now a Professor Emeritus. Author of numerous books and academic articles.

Trained as a chef and worked for almost 20 years as cook and chef in German restaurants such as the »Gasthaus zur Kanne« in Deidesheim, where he was awarded a Michelin star. Since 2004 he has lived in Shanghai, where he worked in various restaurants before opening his own restaurant and cooking school. He also has a consulting firm with which he plans kitchens and concepts for international hotels and restaurants. In the autumn of 2015 he opened two new restaurants in Shanghai, one of them is the »EAST – Modern Asian Eatery«. www.east-eatery.com

THOMAS LINKEL

BEATE TRÖGER

Trained as a photographer and studied economic geography. Since 1998 reporter and photographer for international travel, photography and architecture magazines and international corporate communications. Working on these productions, he has travelled to more than 100 countries. www.thomaslinkel.com

Studied German, English and Theatre, film and television studies. Has worked since 2000 as a literature critic and author for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Freitag newspapers and the Frankfurter Hefte and Literaturblatt Baden-Württemberg magazines, and as a public relations officer for architects’ firms. Since 2003 she has been focusing on the culture and history of Japan.

PHOTO CREDITS ESSAYS

PROJECTS IN EUROPE

P. 7, 9 Toby Binder/Anzenberger, Munich/Vienna (D/A) P. 8 Christian Schittich, Munich (D)

P. 66 Christian Schittich, Munich (D) P. 68 – 71 David Rodríguez y Carlos Huecas (E) P. 72, 73 Four by two, Edinburg (GB) P. 74, 76 Ludger Paffrath, Berlin (D) P. 75 Emmanuel Decouard, Berlin (D) P. 77 – 79 Steve Herud, Berlin (D) P. 80 – 83 John Carey, London (UK) P. 84, 85 Anders Schonnemann, Copenhagen (DK) P. 86, 87 André Morin P. 88 – 91 Milad Abedi, Gothenburg (S) P. 92 – 95 Adrià Goula, Barcelona (E) P. 96 – 99 Luc Boegly, Paris (F) P. 100 – 103 Vonsung, London (GB) P. 104, 105 Hakkasan Group, London (GB) P. 106 – 109 Kengo Kuma & Associates, Tokyo (J) P. 110 – 113 David Giancatarina, Marseille (F) P. 114, 115 Valerie Bennett, London (GB) P. 116 – 118, 119 bottom Christian Schittich, Munich (D) P. 119 top Bjørn Hoffmann and Sofia Borges, Berlin (D) P. 120 – 123 Cornelia Hellstern, Munich (D) P. 124, 125 top Thomas Ruderer, Munich (D) P. 125 bottom Frank Straßmann, Munich (D) P. 126 – 128 David Maštálka, Prague (CZ) P. 129 Tomáš Lébr, Prague (CZ) P. 130 – 137 ett la benn, Berlin (D)

P. 10 Christian Schittich, Munich (D) P. 12 left, 15 left Thomas Linkel, Munich (D) P. 12 right, 13, 14, 15 right Christian Schittich, Munich (D) P. 16, 19, 23 right Christian Schittich, Munich (D) P. 17 top Eric Gregory Powell, Beijing (CN) P. 17 bottom, 18, 20 top, 22, 23 left Thomas Linkel, Munich (D) P. 20 bottom The Peninsula Hotels, Beijing (CN) P. 21 left Nacasa & Partners, Tokyo (J) P. 21 right Tomáš Lébr, Prague (CZ) P. 24, 25 top, 27 – 31 Thomas Linkel, Munich (D) P. 25 bottom Christian Schittich, Munich (D) P. 32 – 35 Gin-Young Song, Zürich (CH)

PROJECTS IN ASIA P. 36 Christian Schittich, Munich (D) P. 38 – 41 Dennis Lo Designs, Hong Kong (HK) P. 42, 43 Hiroshi Mizusaki, Fukuoka (J) P. 44 – 47 id inc., Tokyo (J) P. 48, 49 Matsuoka Photograph Office/Hirokazu Matsuoka, Osaka (J) P. 50, 51 smith&hsu, Taiwan (RC) P. 52 – 55 Park, Youngchae, Seoul (ROK) P. 56 – 59 Sadao Hotta P. 60 Joonyoung Kim, Busan (ROK) P. 61 Lee Su Jin, Seoul (ROK) P. 62 – 65 Matsuoka Photograph Office/Hirokazu Matsuoka, Osaka (J)

APPENDIX P. 138 Christian Schittich, Munich (D) P. 140 top Erieta Attali, New York (USA) P. 140 bottom Dennis Lo, Hong Kong (HK) P. 141 Miss Kō, Paris (F)

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