Ochazuke Bar ZUZU
Tokyo,Japan/2022

“Update”

Ochazuke Bar ZUZU in Kabukicho Shinjuku  has been in the business since 2002. There are more than 20 kinds of ochazuke (rice with tea poured on it) in the bar,  made with brown rice and fish stock soup and served together with sake.
Having been in the business for 20 years in Shinjuku, Ochazuke Bar has become a significant part of Shinjuku history. 

This time, we have proposed to design an interior that can continue to get updated for the next 20 yers. Usually, commercial interiors are redesign between 5 to 10 years. The reason for this change is a simple fact that it is difficult, in the time of the design works, to assume the scale of the material and people’s usage as well as the damage to the wall and floors caused by a large number of people using the space.

Therefore, we wondered if it was possible to create an interior that would not affect the overall design, even if there were partial repairs that could occur in the future. In fact, by connecting the characteristic wallpaper which resembles a patchwork pattern and using the existing wall frame as a design, the joint of the wallpaper becomes a design itself.  We have considered that a new and fresh design will be created by future repairs.

We hope that Ochazuke Bar ZUZU from now on through the next 20 years  will keep bringing the design up do date. 

Design: Masahiro Yoshida, Kim Hyeong Wook
Photos: Keisuke Miyamoto