Local studio Heliotrope Architects has designed a sushi restaurant in Washington named Takai by Kashibi, which spans about 2,000 square feet. Heliotrope Architects set out to create a calm and mellow atmosphere for a sushi restaurant that celebrates Japanese style.

Takai by Kashiba is a sushi restaurant for acclaimed chef Shiro Kashiba, his son, Edwin, and head apprentice Jun Takai. The design is an exercise in simplicity and craft, an intimate retreat to partake in the art of Edomae-style sushi. It is a small restaurant, defined by the sushi bar, the dining room and a whiskey bar, and adopts a Japanese attitude encased in the materials of the Pacific Northwest. Hand troweled plaster walls, and a textural layering of cedar and ash wrapping guests in a soft play of shadow and light.