Milan Ichi Station

Masquespacio presents the latest project it designed in Milan for sushi take away chain Ichi Station. Previously Ichi’s founder Yango Zhang developed already a few spaces for his sushi take away chain, although with this new opening he wanted to give major importance to the dine-in experience. The identity previously developed for Ichi’s spaces was inspired by a travel and a station. Thus, hereby Masquespacio proposed to evolve with that identity to a more conceptual one, maintaining its essence, but getting away from literal and traditional travel representations. For this, the Spanish design studio proposed a travel to the future through light. ”。 “With this more futuristic look we had the opportunity to represent the innovative sushi that is showcased on Ichi’s full of flavors and colors menu, developed by Yango, in collaboration with chef Haruo Ichikawa. ”, comments Masquespacio’s creative director Ana Hernández. To be highlight firstly is the fact that the project is located in a building from the beginning of the past century in an historical street of Milan. The previous design intervention seemed to represent arches and vaults, very adapted to the style of the time the building was constructed, although the decision was taken to break with those traditional elements, converting the space in a contemporary concept and our own capsule to travel into time. Thus, Ichi is inspired in the 90s and represents a travel through light that transports you to know it's different and eclectic flavors, while dining in a space ship of the future. As in all Masquespacio’s projects, a personal language was created to generate a personalized identity with custom-made furniture. A detail to be highlighted here are the glass tables with lighting inside that help customers to have a unique dining experience. Concerning the material selection, the idea was to use simple and pure materials like glass and microcement to create homogeneous surfaces that remind us to the space ship that is aiming to be presented. The most standing out element is although visible at the second part of the restaurant, where the ceiling has been lowered at the maximum possible level and where a half sphere makes you enter a tunnel to the future in which you can see a live performance of Ichi’s sushi chefs. As last to be highlighted is the use of an indirect led lighting system with RGB colors that could transform the atmosphere depending on the time of the day. Client: Ichi Station ( Instagram: @ichi_station Address: Via Solferino, 20121 Milano MI, Italy Design: Masquespacio ( Instagram: @masquespacio_ana Instagram: @masquespacio_chris