メゾン・アウル

Maison Owl

Useful Information

Location:	〒755-0086 Yamaguchi, Ube, Nakaube 字西山1677-1. (33.969933, 131.253603)
Open:	Open only for invited guests. [2024]
Fee:	unknown. [2024]
Classification:	Cellar Restaurant
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:	n/a
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Maison Owl, 〒755-0086 Yamaguchi, Ube, Nakaube, 字西山1677-1, Tel: +81-.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2016-2022	cave house constructed.
JUL-2021	“maison owl PROLOGUE” was opened in Kudan, Tokyo.
DEC-2022	restaurant opened on invitation only.

Description

メゾン・アウル (Maison Owl) is a French restaurant in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The story is short: a French chef wanted to live in the city and operate a French Restaurant for living. He was looking for a special place. He asked his friend, architect Junya Ishigami, who designed a completely new way to erect buildings. The result is a strange cave house with organic walls and pillars. The architect has since become famous, no doubt with the help of this project.

The construction is straightforward. First, the space for the ceiling and the supporting walls and pillars is doug into the ground from above. Then those wells and trenches are filled with concrete, as well as the whole surface. Now the surrounding rock is dug out so only the pilars and walls remain. Finally, a floor is concreted, and a stone staircase down the surrounding trench constructed. One step in this cooking recipe was skipped, there was the idea to wash the remaining rock from the concrete so the walls are grey concrete. But when the excavators were done, the concrete was covered by a thin layer of natural rock, and the whole structure looked like a cave house in natural look. Both the architect and the owner found this better than the original plan and left it this way. And actually, the beige and reddish colour look quite nice.

This site was published widely, almost frenetically. People were hot to visit the site or to eat at the restaurant. The owners have opened for a limited number of guests. As far as we understand, they had the same restaurant in Kudan, Tokyo, from July 2021. Now they sent invitations to a short list of people, we guess former guests and supporters. So the site is, although being a restaurant, not open to the public at the moment. We suppose, once they have established the restaurant staff and all, there will be more possibilities to go there. But we guess it will not be cheap.