青山表邸は南青山三丁目の交差点に程近いビルの地下１階の和食店である。近隣には神宮外苑銀杏並木がある。オープンキッチンを囲うカウンターを中心に、個室が背後を取り囲む。カウンターには料理を盛る織部焼の陶器が引き立つよう、白の人工大理石を採用した。炭火焼や蒸し物が調理される様子を眺める客同士が、一つの白い大皿を取り囲むことで、親密にふるまえる場となればと考えた。個室は４人部屋が４室並ぶタイプと、10人部屋からなる。ゴールドに塗装された個室の天井は、２つの家型が交差してできた形状となっている。個室同士は収納式の大型建具で仕切られており、パーティー・ルームとしての一体利用も可能だ。個室が軒を連ねる通路上部は開放的な直天井とし、個室に通ずる濡れた露地のようにしつらえた。床には銀杏の葉をかたどった金箔が散りばめられている。

Japanese restaurant “Aoyama Hyotei” is located on the first basement floor of a multi-tenant building along Aoyama Dori, the main street running across one of the most sophisticated shopping and business hubs in Tokyo. The restaurant features a long white counter winding around a stainless steel kitchen, and two rows of private rooms behind the walls finished with metallic brown tiles. The former countertop made of white synthetic stone shows the elegant color of the traditional earthenware to advantage. Enjoying the dynamic cooking performed over a charcoal fire and steaming pots, customers could be the intimate spectators to share a long white dish. Private rooms are mainly prepared for the stylish neighbors and celebrities who host a business reception or a private banquet. The ceiling of a private room painted in gold is imprinted with the intersection of two house shapes. The four private rooms can be used as a continuous party room by storing the partitions into the slit between the closets. A passage between a counter and private rooms, whose ceiling is the highest, represents an open air garden alley to invite guests into tea houses. Ginkgo leaves turning gold yellow blown from the outside, shining proudly on the sprinkled garden alley, are shaped with the scattered sheets of gold foils on the dark mortar floor, sealed with seamless shiny resin. The abstraction of the seasonable element could be valuable not only to make dishes lively, but to take their mind off of the fact that they are dining in the basement.