CIMI Restaurant / Jo Nagasaka + Schemata Architects
Text description provided by the architects. A low-key restaurant has opened in a secluded residential area in Yoyogi. It is located where a small cafe and grocery store, “FarmMart & Friends,” that we previously designed had been. In a newly rented corner of the space, a small, special place where strangers could sit side by side and enjoy a meal was born.
The name is “CIMI restorant.” “Cimi (or Jimi)” implies the quality and productivity of the land in Japanese. The restaurant project aims to think about and share food that will contribute to people’s and the earth’s health. In addition to the vegan menu, diners can choose from courses featuring ingredients such as venison and oysters that contribute to solving environmental issues in Japan. The aim is to create a place where people with different eating styles can come together and share a meal. The restaurant is designed to bring people with different backgrounds and ideas together and allow them to engage in spontaneous conversation.
The table where people sit side by side is made of a red cedar log originally cut from two twisted trees merged into one. It was sliced up, and the three stumps were used as legs, with five thinner slabs of log used as the tabletop, providing leg room underneath it. In addition, four round concave and convex shapes form on the edges, and the convex shapes make it easy to loosely form groups. At first, people would keep to themselves, but before long, they start to hear the voices of the people next to them and find themselves chatting over common topics and sharing the same space with others. At the end of the meal, a big circle of people would form, and everyone would chat away.
To begin with, this red cedar was not something one could quickly obtain. Because it was not up to the standards, it had been lying dormant in Shinkiba. In the Internet age, however, even these non-standard materials have become available for one-to-one sales and now see the light of day. Seizing this opportunity, Monosus, the business owner of CIMI at the time, organized the “WOOD STOCK YARD” project to sell dead-stock lumber in collaboration with Takahiro Lumber and was looking for buyers. With the launch of this restaurant project, a proper match was made between the supplier and the buyer, leading to the creation of a restaurant where people gather around a large table.
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