Kitchen Watamiya

A Soba Noodle Restaurant Imagined as a “Nest Box without Nationality”

After discussing various ideas with the establishment owner, who sought to break away from the conventional style of Japanese soba restaurants, we together arrived at a concept to create not a façade that bespeaks a soba restaurant but a “nest box” that reflects no particular nationality and yet somehow also feels familiar.

The massive cedar-bark-thatched roof over the entrance has been designed with softly curving lines in order to give it a symbolic quality as the entrance to the “nest box”.

The large window that provides a view from the street into the room where the soba noodles are made has been designed as a "theatrical" window with a thick frame and a small, decorous awning.

Each element, such as the roof, exterior wall, window, and signage, has been detailed to have an expressive, delightful character.The unique world that they produce together creates a new sight that fades gradually into its urban setting.