Hanasuki opened near Chatswood Westfield in February earlier this year and it is almost certainly Sydney’s first Japanese-style Shabu-Shabu hot-pot restaurant. Eu & Y Architects were commissioned to create a restaurant which would bring an authentic experience of Japanese Shabu-Shabu to Sydney. It also required various dining experiences: a bar setting to run special events, a VIP room, a retail area and a flexible seating layout within 280 square meters.
Shabu-Shabu’s aesthetic is to stir meat in soup for a couple cycles (movement) to retain freshness, with patrons being able to create their own variation of the dish (variation). According to the architects, the design concept of Hanasuki is to express this food aesthetic with abstraction through sense of movement and tone of materiality, which is expressed in timber battens and Eu & Y Architects used natural timber to express the concept, which itself naturally varies in tones. A mixed timber species in solid batten format was selected, including Victoria ash, spotted gum, iron bark, stained Victoria ash to dark, to cover wide range tones of variation.
The composition of the batten pattern was carefully studied, arranging from light to dark in varied length, shades and species, by fine spacing, to create a vivid movement. This movement layer is wrapped throughout the whole restaurant, including walls, joinery and seating, integrating diverse restaurant functions into one holistic design.
The bar and the VIP room are as two focal glows with unique ceiling features, which continues the flow of movement. Offsetting copper boxes in the VIP room ceiling creates a contemporary interpretation to reveal the Japanese traditional hammered crafted copper pot. The movement of bar ceiling is reinforced with a waving impression copper stainless steel, enhancing the active cooking and people gathering scenes.
The floor plan was arranged with clear circulation among complex functions. The bar kitchen, self-service condiment bar and retail are connected on one end providing effective management. The VIP room is positioned in the center strategically and uses four large sliding doors as dividing elements.
When the doors are closed, this allows for three functions – VIP private gathering, bar occasional event and normal hotpot seating, all operating simultaneously without impacting others. When the doors are open, a glimpse of the VIP feature ceiling is visible from surrounding, attracting patrons to book the room for party dinning.
Overall, the design lies with deeply analyzed Japanese Shabu-Shabu food culture, and translated into design language with abstraction. The design creates a warm and immersive experience that engages all senses of the customers, to showcase the authentic story of Japanese Shabu-Shabu food culture.
