PROJECT: Sinju Restaurant, Tualatin,
DESIGNER: Skylab Design Group
CLIENT: Chong U
SIZE: 251 sq m
COST: Undisclosed
PROGRAMME: Six months

The traditional domestic Japanese interior was reinterpreted for Sinju, a sushi restaurant and bar in a suburban mall outside Portland when designer Skylab was asked to incorporate a bar and lounge within its dining area, to create a relaxed venue.

A narrow, red-tiled walkway leading from the mall into the restaurant passes a United Tile pebbled bamboo garden and interconnects a series of spaces as if they are outdoors.

‘The restaurant is more an outdoor courtyard than an interior space,’ says Skylab founder Jeff Kovel, ‘The space treatments are metaphors for the elements, water, fire, atmosphere, and stone.’

More than 12,000 linear metres of Douglas fir line the walls, a style reflected in the Dock chairs from Skypad in the dining areas . A sushi bar runs along one side of the room. The chefs can be seen by diners perched on custom acrylic chairs by Skylab.

One private room has a feature wall tiled with dozens of floral blue sushi plates, and the lighting is used by Skylab to evoke a waterfall and the element of water.

Based on traditional Japanese scree ndesigns, pyramids are a recurring theme. The custom-made pyramidal backlit acrylic ceiling, for example, ’is a web of convex and concave pyramids that feel more like cloud cover than a rigid ceiling,’ says Kovel.

The walkway culminates in a fireplace but the wood-lined lounge’s courtyard atmosphere is created with cherry tree blossom wallpaper above bespoke seating by Think Design.