Cave Restaurant | Koichi Takada Architects

Recently, I’ve been in more than a few restaurants where I thought ‘This would be great, if only I could hear more of my friend and less of the combined room’s conversations. Food’s great, con’t hear. Damn.’ And all that’s really necessary for those restaurants to obtain in order to procure a pleasant dining experience, are a few acoustical pads or hangers. The problem there is that acoustical pads/hangers are rarely aesthetically appealing. Have you ever been in a high school band practice room?

photography by © Sharrin Rees

Koichi Takada Architects have designed a restaurant- the Cave Restaurant- with the acoustics built in. Timber ribs march at regular intervals down the length of the space, absorbing sound and promoting a subtle din of dining noises, as well as acting to divide individual seatings into their own acoustical zones.

Each rib is CNC milled from computer-generated 3D data. And I gotta say, I think I would feel quite comfortable- not physically, but sort of.. universally- eating dinner in a place that resembled, from an entering perspective, the inside of a mouth.