Soba restaurant Kawamichiya takes over century-old townhouse in Kyoto

Japanese studios Td-Atelier and Endo Shorijo Design have remodeled a townhouse in Kyoto right into a noodle restaurant that mixes conventional residential particulars with fashionable geometric interventions.

Kawamichiya Kosho-An is an outpost of soba restaurant Kawamichiya, which might hint its historical past of making dishes utilizing buckwheat noodles again greater than 300 years.

It occupies a 110-year-old property within the downtown Nakagyo Ward that retained a number of options typical of conventional Japanese homes, together with a lattice-screened facade and an alcove often called a tokonoma.

Architect Masaharu Tada and designer Shorijo Endo collaborated on the townhouse’s conversion right into a 143-square-metre restaurant, restoring a number of the unique components whereas adapting others to swimsuit its new goal.

“Initially it regarded like a townhouse with an elaborate design, however numerous modifications have been made for residing and people designs have been hidden or destroyed,” stated Tada.

“Subsequently, we tried to revive the weather of the townhouse corresponding to hidden or misplaced design home windows and alcoves and add new geometry to them to revive them as a brand new retailer.”

A lattice display screen on the entrance of the constructing was restored to assist protect its residential aesthetic, whereas renovations have been carried out on partitions, pillars and eaves inside the open-air entrance passage.

The entryway results in a small genkan-niwa backyard, the place paving stones are laid to create a path utilizing a standard method often called shiki-ishi.

Clients enter Kawamichiya Kosho-An by way of a small retail space containing freestanding partitions that enable the unique picket ceiling construction to stay seen.

Constructed-in bench seating is positioned alongside one wall and a window seat gives a view of the road exterior. Clients right here can eat with their sneakers on, whereas past this area they’re required to take away footwear as is customary when coming into a Japanese home.

Using completely different supplies and modifications in flooring top assist to delineate areas inside the restaurant and create a spread of experiences. Company can select to sit down on chairs in a porch-like area often called a doma or on flooring cushions within the conventional Japanese parlour.

The kitchen is positioned on the centre of the constructing and is ready barely decrease than the encircling flooring, permitting employees working behind the counter to have a transparent view of every diner.

“We management the road of sight to the viewers, the backyard and the road by the peak of every flooring,” Tada stated. “In consequence, it’s an unique townhouse ingredient […] and a brand new design that fuses outdated and new.”

Among the current options that assist to protect the constructing’s character embrace the tokonoma alcove in a room on the primary flooring, which additionally has a curved picket ceiling often called a funazoko-tenjo.

In Kawamichiya Kosho-An’s most important eating space, a tokonoma was changed with a low ornamental shelf whereas the unique screened window on this area was retained. Conventional picket doorways and paper shoji screens have been additionally tailored and used to partition the area.

Tada studied at Osaka College earlier than founding his studio in 2006. He has collaborated on a number of tasks with Endo, who accomplished a grasp’s in plastic engineering on the Kyoto Institute of Know-how earlier than establishing his studio in 2009.

The pair’s earlier work contains the renovation of a typical machiya townhouse in Kyoto, which they modernised to raised swimsuit the residing necessities of its occupants.