The Grand Blue Express Restaurant by Tetsuya Matsumoto is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award d'Argent in Disseny d'Espais Interiors i Exposicions Competition Category.
ArgentInterior· 2022
The Grand Blue Express Restaurant
Client: Nautilus Ueno
A' Design Award d'Argent Winner in Interior Category
- 26,227
- Verified Award Winner
- Verify Award Status for #136354
The Design
About The Grand Blue Express Restaurant
El Grand Blue Express és un restaurant d'aquari de luxe a Ueno, Tòquio. L'espai renovat limitat a 95 m² ocupa la 5a planta d'un edifici d'ús mixt. Inspirat en trens de luxe, el disseny intenta superar les limitacions d'espai reduïts per acollir els aquaris i proporcionar l'ambient de luxe que pretén implementar restaurant. El menjador té la forma d'un autocar de passadís que dóna servei a les cabines individuals a banda i banda. cada cabina està equipada amb el seu aquari instal·lat per imitar les finestres del tren, creant la impressió d'estar dins d'un tren navegant sota l'aigua.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award d'Argent
The Grand Blue Express Restaurant és un guanyador del guardó A' Design Award d'Argent, un reconeixement extraordinàriament prestigiós concedit a dissenys d'alta gamma, esplèndids i impressionants. Els guanyadors d'Argent són obres tremendament brillants i summament creatives que il·lustren la perícia, el talent i la perspicàcia excepcionals dels seus dissenyadors. Es preveu que The Grand Blue Express Restaurant sigui una obra meravellosa i de gran lluïment, remarcablement professional i profundament innovadora. Aquest disseny guanyador del guardó A' Design Award d'Argent és un invent molt notable i admirat que beneficia i fa avançar els límits de l'art, la ciència, el disseny i la tecnologia. The Grand Blue Express Restaurant és una creació molt envejada que evoca desitjos, introdueix sentiments positius i desperta sorpresa i admiració.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- The renovation work for the aquarium dining restaurant took place on the narrow 5th floor of a mixed used building in Ueno, Tokyo. The restaurant is inspired by luxury cruise trains and imitates them to produce a small yet luxurious atmosphere for the dining room. The seats are made into train cabins where the windows are replaced by aquariums. The space turns on to offer an immersive experience with the impression of being inside a train cruising underwater.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Gross Built Area: 95sqm
W15325mm x D8300mm x H2390mm - Tags
- Japan, dining, aquarium, restaurant, Tokyo, blue, train, immersive, hospitality, commercial
- Production Technology
- The walls are made using dry wall techniques. The floor is covered in ceramic tiles. While the ceiling is finished in vinyl cloth mainly, except for the central corridor ceiling which is covered in special stainless panels that imitates water waves. The aquariums are surrounded by steel frames with a golden baked painting finish. On the top of the frame another round steel panels that allows access to the aquariums for maintenance purposes.
- Design Challenge
- The client abstract when starting this project is to produce a luxury aquarium dining experience, however the total floor area to be used, including the kitchen is no larger than 95sqm and the height under the beams is limited to 2.3m. How can such a narrow place offer a luxury experience was the main challenge leading to the concept of luxury cruise trains. the second challenge was to integrate the aquariums in this composition without altering the concept.
- Research
- The experiment of this project was to find a way to imitate a luxury train experience on a concrete building inside the urban jungle of Tokyo. How can a built interior space offer the same experience than a moving dynamic wagon and how can interior materials be used to simulate an automotive space? The combination of material use, dimensional canons, and geometrical shapes were the core of this design exercise.
- Inspiration
- The space was inspired by luxury trains rides which offers various services. The trains are composed of several wagons with special functions and special layouts. The restaurant combines two types of wagons, the cabin and the dinner and merge them to create a dining cabin, and since the restaurant theme is aquarium dining, the train windows are replaced by aquariums to create a simulation of a train cruising under the water.
- Project Duration
- Project start: July 2021.
Construction start: December 2021.
Project/Construction End: February 2022.
Location:
Ueno, Tokyo, Japan. - Operation Flow
- Since the restaurant is located on the 5th floor of a building the access is done through the elevator that opens to a small welcoming hall. At the corner a circular shaped sofa. Then the corridor along the space serving the cabins on both sides. on the left, four two-seaters cabins and on the right four other four-seaters cabins. At the end of the corridor the VIP cabin. The kitchen is accessed on both extremities of the corridor on the right side.
- Team Members
- Tetsuya Matsumoto
Motoaki Takeuchi
Risa Iriyama - Image Credits
- Image #1: photographer ©Stirling Elmendorf, Nautilus, 2022.
Image #2: photographer ©Stirling Elmendorf, Nautilus, 2022.
Image #3: photographer ©Stirling Elmendorf, Nautilus, 2022.
Image #4: photographer ©Stirling Elmendorf, Nautilus, 2022.
Image #5: photographer ©Stirling Elmendorf, Nautilus, 2022.
Sponsored
Explore Beyond Designers.org
Discover products, services and opportunities from our advertising partners.
More to Explore
Related Designs
Explore more award-winning designs from the same category, selected by merit.
