Transformations in Architecture

Site Specific: Shiraishi Umen

Shotaro Oshima Design Studio - Shiroishi City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, 2025

As part of their renovation of a famous noodle restaurant in Shiroishi City in Japan, Tokyo-based practice SODS have added a lightweight porch to an existing, historical structure.

The new porch is characterised by veil-like layers of steel cables, strung in tension between the canopy and the ground, creating a delicate but intense threshold to the restaurant’s entrance. The white porch contrasts strongly with the renovated historical interior which retains its atmosphere of dark timber and plastered infill panels.

The renovation included a new garden in the front of the building, designed by Niwaichi Ltd Landscape Practice, which intertwines with the new porch to create a series of layered spaces between the street and the interior of the restaurant.

SODS Founded in 1897, Kichimi Seimen Ltd. has a long history as a long-established manufacturer of Shiroishi hot noodles (Umen), a speciality of Shiroishi City, Miyagi Prefecture. It is said to have a history of 400 years, and the number of Shiroishi hot noodle makers, of which there used to be dozens in the city, has decreased dramatically, with only five companies, including Kichimi Seimen, currently maintaining the traditional taste and production method.

The building that is the subject of the renovation was built as a samurai residence in the Edo period and has been used as a thatched-roofed one-story building for hot noodle restaurants. The project consists of the complete renovation of the existing building, the addition of a new approach from the front road to the entrance, and the planning of a front garden.

There is a sunken hearth inside the existing building, which is regularly fumigated to maintain the thatched roof. To ensure that the work can continue unchanged after the refurbishment, the floor plan was reconfigured while maintaining the existing smoke-proof compartments.

In line with the expansion of the food business, the design was based on a 44% increase in seating area and a 100% increase in kitchen space. The restaurant space was designed to provide different eating experiences in four areas - Doma, Irori-no-Ma, Enga and Okuno-ma.

The kitchen, which had been located on the north side of the Doma, was shifted to the west, maximizing the volume of the Doma space in the north-south direction and exposing the existing beams, which had previously been hidden behind the ceiling.

The back room, which was originally an employee break room, was converted into an eating area. The existing floor and ceiling were removed and the ceiling was finished as a coffered ceiling to abstractly express the prestige of the former samurai residence. To emphasize the connection between the spaces, the floor was finished with the same Nachiguro gravel washout finish as the Doma floor.

The restaurant with its new porch seen from the street.

The existing building was located behind a concrete wall (as a boundary wall ) running from the adjacent shop and office building, making it difficult to see from the front road and spoiling its appearance. In order to create a new order and attractiveness to the front of the building, the existing concrete wall was removed and a new 9m long approach with eaves was installed, connecting the front road and the entrance to the building.

The design reference for the new approach was the beauty of the neat lines of noodles on a drying table, called a ‘hata’, which plays an important role in the production process of Shiroishi hot noodles. In order to express this fineness architecturally as a space, tension wires were adopted as a material capable of projecting the linear image, and a total of 286 wires were installed on both sides of the new approach. The gradual connection and disconnection with the adjacent front yard changes depending on the angle from which the wires are viewed, and the linear shadows of the wires respond to the garden and thatched building as the sun's altitude fluctuates.

View of the garden set between the neighbouring property and the restaurant.

View of the porch seen through the new front garden.

Technical section through the new porch.

One of the distinct dining areas inside.

NOTES

Many thanks to Shotaro Oshima for sharing this project with us.

For more information on this project and on the practice please visit the SODS website here.

Previous projects by SODS can be found in our Archive; a post on Dentil Furniture for an office building in Tokyo can be found here and a post on the renovation of the KOMORU Goshogawara can be found here.

Posted 2nd May 2025.