Brasserie Restaurant Four Seasons Kyoto

Kokaistudios has recently completed the Brasserie restaurant and lounge, core of the new outstanding Four Seasons resort and residence in the heart of the heritage district of Kyoto; the ancient capital city of Japan.

The new hotel is located in the UNESCO protected area of the temples of Kyoto at the base of the mountains and faces a historical traditional Japanese pond surrounded by a magnificent heritage ikeniwa garden. The restaurant positioned between the arrival lobby and the garden is the core of the public space of the hotel becoming in this way the main representative space of the entire resort. For this reason we conceived the space on with a strong architectural strategy by using the Kyoto traditional system to connect indoor to outdoor creating a large architectural feature that frames the view of the garden from the lobby level all over the restaurant at the level below. In this way the long facade between the restaurant and the garden located on the north side of the hotel become a transparent diaphragm that transmit the indirect light reflected by the garden pond and trees creating a magic contemplative mood in the restaurant space.

The layout of the restaurant has been developed by unifying under the large architectural frame three different functions, a lounge area at the arrival, a central bar and banquette counter and a more private fine dining area. The access to the restaurant has two different entrances; the main entrance is directly connected to the upper level lobby through a special staircase designed as a main sculptural feature capable to become a visible milestone and drive the public guests directly from the main entrance of the hotel through the dramatic double height space looking at the garden down to the lounge area. The second, more private entrance for hotel guests is located on the restaurant level and is designed as a path through a series of experiences, from the lift lobby where a stone garden designed in cooperation with Japanese artist Ramon Todo welcome the guests in a spectacular view of the garden and a carved stone tunnel that drives to the restaurant door.

For this unique project Kokaistudios created a series of custom designed furniture inspired by the traditional Japanese styles and revised with a contemporary attitude to optimize the comfort and create through the development of fine details a subtle sense of essential elegance. Inspired by the local traditional art of bamboo waving we design exclusively for this project a series of iconic seats crafted as large wooden nests that define in a unique way the character of the space and create a strong relation between indoor and outdoor.

Stone surfaces are hand hammered so to make them become visually and tactilely soft, wooden surfaces and treated in the same methodology as the traditional outdoor Japanese timbers, and special metal materials has been developed in cooperation with Japanese craftsmen so to make them reveal unusual and original artistic effects.