NOMA
Kyoto 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION —For its second seasonal pop-up at Ace Hotel Kyoto, Noma Kyoto embraced the essence of autumn, with an interior design inspired by the vibrant colors, textures, and sounds of the season. Collaborating with OEO Studio, Noma created a space that merges traditional Japanese craftsmanship with nordic aesthetics, offering an immersive dining experience.

The interior design features natural materials such as persimmon-dyed paper panels by Wataru Hatano, traditional thatching by Ikuya Sagara, and wall covering with Søuld’s Acoustic Boards made out of eelgrass, blending organic textures with a modern aesthetic.

The high-performance Søuld Acoustic Boards help control sound in the dining room, ensuring a quiet and comfortable indoor environment. As a natural extension of the menu, which features locally sourced marine ingredients like crab and seaweed, the eelgrass panels evoke the marine landscape from which these flavours originate, adding an organic and tactile dimension to the space and a subtle, natural scent of the sea.

The collaboration between Noma, OEO Studio, Søuld, Dinesen, Christine Rudolph and local artisans transformed the restaurant into a celebration of nature’s textures, colours, and tastes.