Restaurant architecture, when designed well, allows the design to not only have eye-catching components — well hung artwork, unique lighting or even a well-placed fireplace — but allows the layout, lighting and mood to shine through. And, it does not distract from the food or the conversation.
Instead, a well-designed restaurant will subtly enhance these elements, providing a memorable experience for diners. Kosushi, the highly anticipated Japanese restaurant coming to Miami Beach’s South Pointe neighborhood, aims to do all that. Under the design direction of award-wining Brazilian architect Arthur Casas and his Studio Arthur Casas, São Paulo and New York, the design intention for the dining area was to create an experience rooted in the Japanese culture, gastronomy and traditional architecture while incorporating Brazilian furniture, textile combinations and finishes.
“The idea was to create a restaurant that becomes a reference design-wise, capable of providing not only a meal, but a complete sensorial experience, a synonym of pleasurable moments where people would enjoy coming, staying and returning,” says Casas.
Acknowledging the irrefutable relationship between people’s mind and the sensations caused by certain places, Studio Arthur Casas incorporated millwork to “bring moments of awe and surprise.”
Inspired by Japanese carpentry, especially the art of joinery, which consists in creating wood structures with intricate joints and no glue or metallic supports, the millwork design is an important asset to the overall vision of the project.
A technique that is the trademark of Japanese traditional architecture applied in a contemporary way offers guests an encounter of tradition with modernity. The curve of the sushi bar is very expressive in the layout of the restaurant and represents the core of the floor plan. Organic shapes in both the sushi bar and seating areas contrast with the orthogonal lines of the dropped ceiling millwork and allow for visual balance and harmony. The color palette and the materials also lend to the mood.
A light shade of oak wood is used in the millwork and is complemented with gray tones and concrete texture in the walls to bring an elegant feel to the space. Metal throughout the space is brass, and when combined with the light oak wood makes the space inviting and effortless. The lighting was designed completely attached to the wooden cubes in the dropped ceiling. Taking advantage of the complexity of the millwork, it was possible to play with light and shadow effects, achieving an ambience of comfort and coziness in the restaurant.
“The restaurant offers spaces with strong visual character and identity. Each material, texture, fabric and light stimulate different sensations and feelings on the users,” says Casas. The restaurant can seat 66 guests, with 10 at the sushi bar.
