JPAN is the fifth restaurant in the family.
The premises are housed in a pre-revolutionary building with vaulted ceilings and complex layouts. Functionally, the space is divided into three rooms – the main room with a bar and various seating areas, a small cozy room in the middle, and a distant, slightly hidden room with a high vaulted ceiling.
The main interior materials are wood, concrete, metal, and glass, which are found throughout the space and complement each other. Despite all the rooms being cohesive, they are visually distinct and each offers an interesting view. The first room is minimalist white, the second is wooden, and the third is dominated by fabric.
In the interior, we pay tribute to traditional Japanese “sedzi” partitions, which are made of “wasi” – traditional Japanese paper. In the first rooms, these partitions create different zones, adding privacy and coziness to the space without visually cluttering it. In the distant room, these are suspended canvases that echo the line of the arched ceiling.
Another zoning technique is the use of glass bricks, transparent and light on one side, unusual and refracting depending on the point of view. To some extent, this is a homage to Japanese architect Hiroshi Nakamura and his Optical Glass House project.