Located in one of the most bustling night life spots in Japan, The Parallel Blue offers a new aquarium dining experience in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
Challenging the ocean themed possibilities in the heart of the concrete jungle, the new restaurant turns the simple hospitality environment into an immersive space where dinners are submerged in an aquarium universe. The roles are inversed, the dining room is now contained in a box and surrounded by oceanic sceneries, instead of the classical ornamental or decorative use of aquariums.
The available room, however, not exceeding the 94 square meters, and the ceiling height limited at a crushing 2.1m, were decisive in shaping the dinning space. Considering the water tanks heavy weight to be introduced in a relatively old building, the aquariums were positioned exclusively on the top of load bearing beams. Moreover, the aquariums require a maintaining space on the top restricting them from reaching the ceiling and creating a dramatic effect. To create the immersive experience, walls were finished in mirrors and the ceiling in a similarly reflective aluminum panels expending the space in all directions and recreating the oceanic life forms of the aquariums in a surrounding environment. The ceiling features a white circle where air-conditioning and lighting equipment were placed, a floating disk accentuating the illusion of being under a larger aquarium overhead.
