are explored, it makes sense to go back to basics. Texture is easy and comfortable to identify with. Texture can accompany any form. It is not bound by any particular style, and it evokes fond memories and nostalgia.

After years of development, Hisushi has established its own distinct image as a trendy restaurant. However, after reaching its peak, every cutting-edge trend eventually simplifies and returns to nature. The Lake Store is the turning point in this natural tide. At Hisushi, quality is clearly and naturally communicated to guests through simple ingredients, flavours, and service.

The design team envisioned the restaurant as a brightly lit fishing boat on the sea that follows its own path and never gets lost. What guides it back to the harbour is its belief: To provide a simple and harmonious atmosphere to savour the bounty of the land and sea.

This is implemented in practice by having the veneer as a substrate of the overall texture. These very direct and traditional Japanese elements have an air of light and timelessness. Beyond this background, the second layer uses a subtle, traditional Japanese-style blue and white pattern covering the front of the space and creating a contrasting, but not jarring visual effect. Combining the “se”, two moderate elements brings about a subtle tension of the story that, along with Katsushika Hokusai’s ukiyo-e, gives rise to this space’s singular imagery.

The protagonist of the story, and also the soul of the restaurant and the rotary tables, is the courageous night fishing boat, brightly lit and full of vitality. The design team deliberately chose chandeliers bearing a similar style that highlight numbers in a sequential manner, with the area above the bar full of chandeliers whose jet black metal frames and iron nets exude the beauty of simplicity. Diners will look up from their seats to see not only the different aesthetic levels around them, but also the unfolding of the Ukiyo-e story.

Sometimes texture is an ineffable thing, not so much a style as an impression the space has left in the mind of the viewer, evoking a certain yearning with every thought. The Hisushi Lake restaurant is a pioneering endeavor to abandon form and let the materials speak for themselves. Complex approaches may be able to create an ephemeral visual impact, but satiation inevitably comes with time. Instead, when the design team has taken the most essential materials and give them the time and space to simply be, telling their own quietly profound story that leaves an indelible mark on the heart.