Hiyama Restaurant

Press Kit

Unique Properties

The brand “Hiyama” has a history of 100 years in Japan, own by the Murakami family. In respect to its age and social status of the family, the first branch of Hiyama is designed under the concept of nature, Zen and the traditional Japanese house. In terms of the experience of entering the mansion of Murakami, a bar as the welcome area allows guests to be comfortably seated and waiting with drinks, following by a bamboo path with mist gives a feeling of being in the outdoor garden, different dining areas then have become the varied houses of the family by peeking through the bamboos, then passing by a pavilion at the end of the path and entering the main hall that is sandwiched in between a veranda in wood leading to the private room (VIP) and the balcony of the mall facing the harbor that also symbolizes an outdoor veranda spatially. In terms of construction, each “room” is also built as an individual structure with beams and columns like a house due to the ceiling of the mall.

Dimensions & Packaging

Area: 2690 sq.ft.
Capacity: 83

Tags

Japan, Bamboo, Japanese House, Japan tradition, Tatami, Mist, free-standing structure

Production Technology

In terms of construction, aligning with the concept of having houses in the garden, the "rooms" are actually built as the independent structures with beams and columns due to the fact that the landlord does not allow us to hang anything from the ceiling.
For the "Zen" round mirror with a ripple-like feature wall, it was prefabricated in two pieces by CNC. For the check pattern feature wall with plaster finish, it was hand-painted by a very experienced worker.
In order to create a realistic daylight effect by having the continuous LED false ceiling, anything such as air-con opening, sprinkler and E-light were installed on the side instead because they cannot be seen on the ceiling. By having the air-con on the side, the air actually helps to blow and suck the mist downwards from the above that contributes to creating a mysterious feeling.
Instead of making drawings in a traditional way by CAD, the drawings including the E&M were generated by BIM software from the 3D model.

Design Challenge

Cannot hang anything from the ceiling was the big challenge that we faced in this project, especially for an F&B project that requires a lot of E&M to be installed above the dining area such as air-conditioning, sprinkler, and lightings. To overcome the problem, building free-standing structures like houses and having the equipment laying on the roof was the solution. The second challenge will then be creating an eye-catching bamboo path for Instagramming with day and night, the solution was to have a continuous pure white LED above the bamboo walkway mimicking the daylight by moving all equipment to the side such as the air-con and exhaust.

Project Duration

The project is located in Harbor City, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The design was started in June 2019 and the construction was finished in November 2019.

Operation Flow

In terms of operation, a welcome bar is designed as a waiting area by the entrance is where the guests can comfortably settle down and wait to be seated with free drinks. Before having the Sukiyaki, the manager will show and introduce to the guests the wagyu beef, then cook in front of the guests and serve immediately.
There is also a very interesting spatial interaction between the outside (Bamboo path) and the inside (dining area), that the guests can peek into the windows that are opened looking for friends while their friends are like waiting for someone visiting their house, the dramatic silhouette creates by the frosted glass by the bamboo also helps to create excitement to whoever is waiting.
For catering different groups of people, flexible table setting, the "pavilion" as a semi-open room, a small private room, an event space with a capacity of 30 and a VIP room at the end with build-in acoustic panels for having meetings were designed.

Inspiration

The design inspiration in terms of construction, layout, experience and operation flow, was coming from the traditional Japanese house, garden and "Zen"; veranda, tatami mat, pavilion, bamboo, spatial arrangement, spatial hierarchy, water, mist, craftsmanship, etc. By combining all these together to form a traditional Japanese mansion of a noble family, creating the feeling of luxury through the spatial experience, and also the feeling of eating in a Japanese garden outdoor while actually being in a shopping mall.

Image Credits

Photographer: Yui Zhu, Kaman Tjang
Video Credits: Yui Zhu, Kaman Tjang

Patents

Copyrights belong to Alvan Suen, 2020

Colors of Hiyama Restaurant

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