A joyous cultural communion.
Rumbling stomachs, relax: melt-in-your-mouth sushi is just a few taps away at Kosaten, Salamanca. And it arrives in speed and style aboard a silver ‘bullet train’.
A clash of colour and culture. A playful Japanese restaurant fitout carved around cutting-edge technology. Unexpected dynamism in a heritage-listed grain store.
CLIENT
Kosaten
IMAGES
Renee Hodskiss
LAND OF
muwinina
COLLABORATORS
AWARDS
‘Kosaten’ translates to the idea of crossing cultures, signifying the mix of Japanese and Australian influences in this Salamanca eatery. The four silver sushi ‘bullet trains’ lay at the heart of our design. This nifty, new-to-Australia technology delivers orders to your table in just a few easy taps.
With Japan as inspiration, Kosaten’s colour palette sings. Pink and aqua perspex allude to Tokyo’s neon lights. The bright entry conjures up Japanese cherry blossom season. As a nod to Japanese lanterns, the interior team designed custom-made light shades.
Tokyo and Tasmania collide.
Then came the Australian influence.
Local artist Daisy Legs hand-painted vibrant, graphic murals, and we featured Australian designed and built furniture throughout. We sourced stools from Adelaide-based Hunt Furniture and custom-designed booths featured local timber, including sassafras and Tasmanian oak.
It was a worthy challenge to keep seating ergonomics efficient and dynamic, whilst fitting them around the existing pillars and beams. Walk into Kosaten, and it’s like an energetic graphic design sketch come to life. You feel like you’ve stumbled into a hidden portal to a Tokyo street. Not bad for the ground floor of a Georgian warehouse, really.
When the brief says Japanese pop culture, we know to go bright, bold and utterly unrestrained. Except, for Kosaten, we had the welcome restraints of the heritage-listed framework. We imagined how dense colonial sandstone walls would contrast with acid-bright colours, and the joyous cultural communion began.
The heritage grain store’s sandstone wall and structural timber framework guided the logic for the space. It also offered a frame for different seating arrangements, the bar and a private dining room.
There are two distinct personalities within the building. The entrance is bright, light and energetic; the inside, more intimate. In the entrance, white steel boxes create an undulating ceiling and inviting steel bar. Head further inside and you’ll find new timber contrasting with the old, existing hand-hewn stone walls. Here, soft lighting encourages occupants to relax and linger.
Pop culture paradise.
