REptile, Haku Japanese Restaurant, New York, 2005 View of the entire restaurant interior from the perspective of the sushi bar. Custom wall-mounted modular REptiles blend in to the sushi bar fixture to create an integrated approach.
entitles REptile for reasons that are apparent when you see the scaly tiles in the interior, has enabled Douglis to import cutting-edge techniques into a commercial environment. In the design development of the restaurant, he continued to work with 3-D modelling software, but his experimentation using animation software was particularly vital to the development of these surfaces. Our discussion continued, as he explained how an enlightened client allowed him to adapt ‘dazzle topology’ in this scheme: ‘Our client for this project approached us to design a Japanese restaurant that would aim our new research with animate membranes in a direction that celebrated a specific cultural or mythological theme related to Japanese cuisine. He was familiar with our development of complex surfaces and our current use of high-end fabrication technology for our mass-produced architectural components. As a sign of support, he enthusiastically challenged us to make a new
building block that continued our theoretical interests and at the same time satisfied his specific design concerns. ‘Given the high demand to maximise the floor area for seating, we were obligated from the outset to abandon a more ambitious morphological strategy for the project in favour of a more normative spatial layout. Although subtle in its minimalist sensibility, in retrospect it offered us an ideal foil to develop once again an exuberant set of surface expressions for our new custom wall tiles installed throughout the interior perimeter of the restaurant. ‘In terms of the initial design development of the REptile module, we began by searching for a range of associative material in response to our desire to imbue the surface with specific signifying qualities. After examining a wide range of source material, we decided to use certain topological expressions specific to reptile skins. Curiously, we found an illustrious history connected to the great symbolic
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