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The project for a Japanese restaurant in Rome developed by Italian studio Carlo Berarducci Architecture, is inspired by the walkways in the forest, bordered by a succession of blacks and glossy orange-red wooden portals, which lead to the temples of Fushimi Inari in Kyoto, which reproduces colours and suggestions.

Zen Sushi was the first Japanese restaurant in Italy to bring the Kaiten, particularly the conveyor belt to serve freshly prepared sushi on coloured saucers indicating prices. On the tenth anniversary of the restaurant in Rome the property wanted to have a new look. The design challenge was to create a space with a truly Japanese essence in a contemporary way, recreating the suggestion of colours and materials of the temples of Kyoto.

The project was conceived as a process, a sequence of steps and direction changes, which gradually revealed the environments without closing the perspectives, inviting you to explore the interior spaces. Dividers and walls formed by the close succession of hundreds of vertical elements of black wood, lacquered from one metre up in glossy red-orange, drive and mark the going throw, and red-orange reflecting suspended ceilings identify the different areas of the hall, the sushi bar and the rooms with tables.

Suspended PVC lacquered ceilings of the same colour emphasise the visual perspectives and define the different entrance and waiting areas, the long sushi bar with the Kaiten, and a small more intimate room at the end that can be reserved for private dinners.

Two rich black polished marble walls are the backdrop to the entrance area and the room with the tables where the marbled wall continues along the staircase leading to the bathrooms downstairs, reflected on the opposite mirror walls that multiply the perspective of the space. The same marble with a brushed finish as worn by time are used for the reception desks and sushi bar as massive quarry blocks resting on the floor, while a rice paper backlit wall underlines the central focus of the restaurant, the Kaiten and the open workstation of the sushi master.

Project: Zen Sushi Restaurant
Location: Rome, Italy
Architects: Carlo Berarducci Architecture, Rome, Italy 
Technical info: PVC ceiling
Picture credits: Fernando Guerra
Website: www.berarducciarchitecture.com