Nobu Dubai

12 May 2009

As part of the opulent Atlantis resort in Dubai, NobuyukiMatsuhisa’s new restaurant celebrated its opening with the world’s largest private party. Designer Rockwell group used natural materials and exquisite craftsmanship to bring a Japanese flavor to the united emirates’ state.

Key facts

PROJECT: Nobu Dubai
DESIGN: Rockwell Group
CLIENT: Nobu/Kerzner
SIZE: 1,000 sq m
COMPLETION TIME: Three years

Project description

Nobu restaurants tend to acquire their own reputations. Eating at Nobu Los Angeles is said to be auspicious for actors on Oscar night, while the Evening Standard once branded the Park Lane branch ‘the randiest, sexiest, most lascivious restaurant in London’.

An exaggeration perhaps, but we might expect the clientele of NobuyukiMatsuhisa’s new outpost in Dubai to be a little more restrained. The design, by New York-based architect practice Rockwell Group, is nevertheless just as thrilling.

In the Atlantis resort on the flamboyant Palm Jumeirah – a man-made island in the shape of a palm tree, for anyone who’s missed it – Nobu Dubai is the latest in a rapidly expanding empire of ‘destination restaurants’ famed for exquisite Japanese cuisine and style as sharp as a samurai sword.

There are nods here to Rockwell Group’s design for Nobu 57 in New York’s trendy Tribeca district, not least in the expert craftsmanship and use of high-quality, natural materials. Its own signature comes from references to the ocean, an element closely linked to life in Dubai as well as Japan.

A gently undulating plaster wall marks the entrance to the sushi bar; the wall’s surface is decorated with an intricate raised motif of flowers – inspired by Japan’s celebrated cherry blossom – laser-cut from metal.

The ceiling, floors and walls are clad in huge panels of terrazzo, made by embedding black bamboo in concrete, black for ceiling and floor, cream for the walls, while the bar itself is in locally sourced scorched ash.

A white bamboo wall, likened by the designers to a theatre’s proscenium, forms the backdrop to the space, flanked by a service bar clad in blue frosted mirrors on one side and the curving wall on the other.

The drinks bar is made from 8cm-thick planks of live-edge black walnut and features a back-lit onyx front. In the lounge, deep vertical illuminated panels, this time of eco resin with the cherry blossom motif, punctuate the circular bench seating. Lighting is created from Japanese fishing baskets, a tribute to Nobu 57’s interior, inspired by traditional Japanese fishing villages.

The main dining space is dramatic and brooding, designed with Rockwell’s trademark theatre drama. Huge whorls of woven screens cascade from ceiling to floor, lapping and overlapping along the walls, creating a three-dimensional texture and evoking the depths of the ocean.

Small and intimate dining areas are set up inside the actual whorls, uplit for extra dramatic effect.

According to the designers, the challenge was to transform a ‘blank canvas’ into a series of unique but cohesive spaces while at the same time making use of local artisans and reflecting the cuisine and spirit of Nobu.

That’s the crucial difference between the design of NobuyukiMatsuhisa’s restaurants and the identikit chains that roll out the same interiors the world over: it’s vital that every branch of Nobu has its own personality.

Given the lavish ceremony that marked the opening of the Atlantis resort in November 2008, reputed to be the world’s largest private party, we might expect Nobu Dubai to be something of an extrovert.