Ukiyoe Restaurant by Fabio Su is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2026 Bronze A' Design Award in Interior Space and Exhibition Design Competition Category.
BronzeInterior· 2026
Ukiyoe Restaurant
by Fabio Su
Client: Zendo Design
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Interior Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #174013The Design
About Ukiyoe Restaurant
This Japanese conveyor belt sushi restaurant incorporates the principles of local, sustainable, and environmentally friendly. The exterior features woodgrain aluminum louvers that depict the imagery of Mount Alishan. The interior continues the Japanese colonial architectural style, featuring a palette of natural materials. The space incorporates Ukiyoe motifs and Japanese aesthetics, creating a dining experience that blends nature and culture.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
Ukiyoe Restaurant is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. Ukiyoe Restaurant is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. Ukiyoe Restaurant splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Interviews
Grand Interview
The exterior of Ukiyoe Restaurant features woodgrain aluminum louvers that trace the silhouette of the Alishan mountain range, a design decision that immediately anchors the building to its Taiwanese context without resorting to literal or superficial representation; what was the creative thinking behind translating a mountainous natural landscape into an architectural skin in this way, and how did you determine that this particular abstraction would carry enough emotional resonance for guests arriving at the restaurant for the first time?
This decision succeeded because it didn't treat culture as background decoration. Instead, it transformed culture into light, materials, and a complete spatial experience. First-time guests may not be able to name the silhouette as 'Alishan,' but they can absolutely feel the profound depth, sustainability, and warmth inherent to a mountain settlement. That is the highest level of emotional resonance that abstract design can achieve.
Sustainability and dining culture rarely enter the same conversation in the public imagination, yet Ukiyoe Restaurant places eco-conscious principles at the very core of its spatial identity, choosing materials such as unprocessed cypress wood and rustic iron to minimize environmental impact; in what ways did the commitment to sustainability actually expand rather than restrict the aesthetic possibilities of Ukiyoe Restaurant, and how do you see this model influencing how restaurateurs and designers collaborate on environmentally responsible dining spaces moving forward?
Ukiyoe Restaurant proves that genuine sustainability isn't about making compromised, ascetic trade-offs for environmental protection. Instead, it’s about using smarter and more inspired design to bring out the most authentic, touching essence of the materials. This model will lead future collaborations toward a win-win-win outcome for aesthetics, eco-friendliness, and commercial success.
The decision to incorporate Ukiyo-e imagery, most notably the iconography of the Edo period's vibrant street life, stretching across the interior of Ukiyoe Restaurant creates a powerful narrative layer beneath what is conventionally a fast-paced conveyor belt dining format; how did the research process behind selecting and integrating these specific cultural references unfold, and in what way do you believe Ukiyoe Restaurant reframes the relationship between historical visual culture and the contemporary dining experience?
Ukiyoe Restaurant’s use of historical visual culture offers an exceptional aesthetic model: it isn't about being retro, it’s about bringing the beauty of the past back to life through modern spatial language. History is no longer an antique locked away in a museum; it has become the core catalyst, enriching both the taste and vision of today’s dining experience.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- To reflect the local culture and natural landscape, the exterior of the building uses a 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. To emphasize the cultural background of conveyor belt sushi, Japanese cuisine and the deliciousness of the ingredients, the most representative "Ukiyo-e" wallpaper is stretched along the space, reappearing bustling scene of Edo period.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The 261 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. Subverting the tradition, the design team adopts double tracks to meet the diverse needs, and by narrowing the distance between the chefs and guests at Itabasahi area, giving a rich and cozy experience for them.
- Tags
- Restaurant, Japanese, Taiwan, Integration, Conveyor belt sushi, Local, Sustainable, Environmentally friendly
- Production Technology
- Cypress wood, granite skin, night pearl antique surface, incense fir, H-shaped steel, wood grain aluminum grille, Ukiyo-e output map, wood grain brick, rust plate, cola stone
- Design Challenge
- The creative and research challenge of this project lies in seamlessly integrating local natural imagery, architectural elements from the Japanese colonial period, and Japanese aesthetic principles within the efficiency-driven conveyor-belt sushi dining model. At the same time, the design must balance the use of sustainable materials, rational circulation planning, and enhanced customer interaction, ultimately creating a dining space that achieves both cultural depth and spatial comfort under functional, cost, and environmental constraints.
- Research
- This study takes a Japanese conveyor-belt sushi restaurant as a case example to explore the application of the concepts of locality, sustainability, and environmental responsibility in dining space design. By integrating imagery inspired by the Alishan mountain landscape, architectural elements from the Japanese colonial period, and the Japanese aesthetic principles of simplicity and shadow, the design combines sustainable materials with a dual-track circulation system to create a dining environment that balances cultural depth, interactivity, and comfort.
- Inspiration
- This project is located in Yuanlin, Changhua, Taiwan and is a Japanese conveyor-belt sushi branch in Yuanlin.We continue the design language of our Chiayi flagship store while incorporating local characteristics and elements of Japanese dining culture to create a restaurant space rich in storytelling.With the main concept of "local, sustainable and eco-friendly", we draws on the characteristics of Chiayi's most famous Alishan mountain landscape and the characteristics of the forestry settlement, while blending into the essence of Japanese dining culture.
- Project Duration
- The project was designed to begin in January 2024 and be completed in Yuanlin, Taiwan, in November 2024.
- Operation Flow
- I With the concept of "handling complexity by simplicity," 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.
- Image Credits
- Image#1:Photographer LIN FU MING, zendo, 2025
Image#2:Photographer LIN FU MING, zendo, 2025
Image#3:Photographer LIN FU MING, zendo, 2025
Image#4:Photographer LIN FU MING, zendo, 2025
Image#5:Photographer LIN FU MING, zendo, 2025
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