The project is premised on the assumption that it will be demolished in three years.
The client said, "I want to revive a former French bistro although for a limited period of three years to please our customers. But, if we don't have something to talk about, our customers won't come." We decided to visit the site first. I immediately noticed that all the materials, including mahogany, were of excellent quality, as the space was built more than 30 years ago.
And, if this is a good chance for people to take another look at French bistros that have taken root in Japan spread by Imperial Hotel, why not express the atmosphere of a French bistro that could be found in Paris today? In other words, "all you have to do is to let us taking solid, historic materials and paint them all with nice and monotone."
The color we aimed for was the "International Klein Blue (=IKB)" used by Yves Klein, a French artist born in Nice, in his monochrome paintings. Of course, using real IKB would be costly and time-consuming to obtain, so we tried to get as close as possible by mixing available paints.
Furthermore, since I had the impression that there was a lot of street art in Paris today, I asked artist Shogo Sekine to draw graffiti on top of the colors inspired by IKB. I would be more than happier if "HOTEL BAR at Imperial Hotel" we created would be the place where people want to visit when they come to Tokyo.