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Ukiyoe: Japanese Style Conveyor Belt Sushi Restaurant

Fabio Su's Ukiyoe project is a Japanese style conveyor belt sushi restaurant located in Chiayi City, Taiwan. The restaurant preserves the original Japanese architecture and integrates it with local elements and Japanese style dining culture to create a dining space that is full of story. With the main concept of "local, sustainable and eco-friendly," the restaurant draws on the local most famous Alishan mountain landscape and the characteristics of the forestry settlement, while blending into the essence of Japanese dining culture.

To reflect the local culture and natural landscape, the exterior of the building uses wood grain aluminum louvers to outline the shape of Alishan mountain, while the interior part retains the building during the Japanese occupation period and plenty of materials. The most representative "Ukiyo-e" wallpaper is stretched along the space, reappearing bustling scenes of the Edo period to emphasize the cultural background of conveyor belt sushi, Japanese cuisine, and the deliciousness of the ingredients.

The 297 square-meters space is divided with a semitransparent material with wooden louvers and different lanterns to create an open visual. Unprocessed cypress wood and rustic iron are used to reduce the environmental impact. The design team adopts double tracks to meet diverse needs, and by narrowing the distance between the chefs and guests at Itabasahi area, giving a rich and cozy experience for them.

The restaurant interprets sustainability through reinforcement methods to stabilize the structure. The exterior draws the local natural landscape, exploring the harmony between human and nature, and the Japanese "shaded" aesthetic. As Japanese Ukiyo-e "the Kanagawa Surfing" throughout the interior, it reflects the Japanese cuisine background and presents a fresh dining experience.

The project design started in June 2018 and was completed on December 25, 2019, in Chiayi City, Taiwan. The designer aimed to regenerate an abandoned old building and inject fashion elements into it with both functionality and traditional style, conforming to the main spirit of its brand. The original site was an abandoned old building, lacking of bearing capacity, and the design team retained the main body of the building and used reinforcement methods. Local beams and columns are fixed with irons while the entire structure becomes stronger by using H-shaped steel. All the pipelines are reconfigured, breaking away the conventional Japanese-style architecture and successfully bringing out the unique features.

Fabio Su, originally from Chiayi, Taiwan, won the Bronze A' Design Award in 2021 for this project. The Ukiyoe project was awarded for its outstanding and creatively ingenious design, incorporating best practices in art, science, design, and technology, contributing to quality of life improvements and making the world a better place.

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