Virgin Izakaya Bar – Upscaling historic influences

Studio YoDezeen repurposes the industrial architecture of an old Kyiv Factory into an upscale Japanese restaurant…

The 18th-century arsenal factory territory with buildings made of bricks with Art Nouveau elements was a vivid example of the Kyiv School of architecture.

Literally, the word “izakaya” is translated from Japanese as “a place in a wine house” where you can come and drink a glass or two of wine. Over time, such “izakaya” served small portions of food, which were prepared right in front of guests in the open kitchen. Still common in Japan, today “izakaya” is a part of the world’s gastronomic culture.

Stripping away the additions and alterations and retaining all the authentic elements of the historic architecture, the ambience of the restaurant is welcoming and warm as statement lighting and greenery are juxtaposed against bare brick and concrete, rough wood, and oxidized metal.

Natural materials – wood, copper, leather, metal mesh… perform both – the function of space zoning and creating special decorative elements.

The open kitchen is the thematic cynosure and is designed at the same level as the main hall of the restaurant. This enlarges the space visually and guests find themselves face-to-face with the chef – like attendees of a real culinary master class. Comfortable sofa seats line the periphery with compactly placed wooden tables, while single stick stools make for the bar area.

The restrooms are quite a highlighting feature, created as they with partial views of the main hall. They make a free-standing internal structure made of red metal mesh and expressed as a separate building in Japanese style, about 3-metres high.

The designers use a diligent balance of minimal contemporary interventions with old-world charm to blend in an authentic izakaya experience in this project.

Fact File:
Typology: Hospitality Design/ Adaptive Re-use
Project Name: Virgin Izakaya Bar
Design Studio: YoDezeen
Lead Architects & Co-Founders: Artem Zverev and Artur Sharf
Team:Artem Voskoboinyk, Yurii Tsyhylyk, Anya Tarabanova, Vitalii Korzh, Olga Kravchenko,  Yuriy Tsyhylyk.
Area: 405 sq. m
Location: Kyiv
Photography courtesy of YoDezeen