A Journey Towards Luxury Restaurant Fit-Out
To collectively answer the question "What exactly are we going to do there?" here it is. In Washington DC, we will do all the project management and final implementations of two beautiful but challenging high-end restaurant fit-out projects called AKEDO and SHOTO, one being a Japanese restaurant and the other being a Japanese speakeasy club. We are confident that this small step in the USA, which is a massive leap for us, will be a good start and that there will be more to come in the future. We can hear you say, "All right, we know what a Japanese restaurant is, but what is a speakeasy club?". The Speakeasy concept was the name given to secret nightclubs that sold alcohol during the prohibition period in the USA during the 1920s. AKEDO, which is also designed based on this idea, is a small, fast food restaurant during the day, and at night it turns into a large nightclub full of vintage materials that you can pass through Japanese game machines with passwords or tokens. COOL!
High-End Restaurant Fit Out In An Unknown Territory
No matter how excited we already are by the result, the road ahead is filled with blood, sweat and tears. When saying a new country, new project, new system, new culture, we found ourselves in a completely different and challenging adventure, even though we are an experienced interior design company in Turkey that completed many global projects. In the early days of our visit to Washington DC, we just shuttled between the construction site and our hotel to familiarize ourselves with the project team and take measurements on the site. Therefore, unfortunately, we do not have any touristic photos from Washington DC for this article, but we will have some in our next article. By the way, it is not just Washington; it is Washington DC! Let us not skip this; hence, while Washington is a southern state of the United States of America, Washington DC (District of Columbia) is the capital. Our projects are within walking distance of the White House. After completing the one-week site marathon, with a 4-day visit to New York, we took some breath and started market research for YOO. In her famous song, Alicia Keys said this concrete forest where dreams come true immediately drew us in. We loved the architecture, the city plan, and the lifestyle, so we took all the necessary photos and headed back to Washington DC to return to the construction site. After spending our final days in Washington DC planning what to do at the construction site until our next visit, we returned to our homeland. We will update and share our adventures with you in the Newsletter from time to time, so continue to miss us and stay tuned!!
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A High-End Restaurant Fit Out Project where the Sun Does Not Set: Building Abroad
While the exciting period that we are in influences everything in every part of the world without exception, it affects each life differently. Although we planned to make a Middle East - America comparison in this article, we decided to do that some other time. Instead, we wanted to tell you about our story about our project in the USA. You may find my previous newsletter article here to remember our works.
Global Interior Design During A Global Pandemic
In the USA, the coronavirus process divides businesses into two parts which are 'Essential' and 'Non-essential'. While supermarkets, which are in the essential group, continue to operate, stores in the non-essential group are closed. What about the construction work? Of course, essential! Therefore, since the beginning of the pandemic, we have continued to work steadily, albeit a little slowly. Although this is sometimes advantageous, there are times when our productivity involuntarily decreases. At this point, I owe a debt of gratitude to my teammates. Our biggest support comes from our Turkish team, with dozens of e-mails every morning filled with thousands of questions and their calls just like a wake-up service. They keep working while we are asleep, and we keep working while they are asleep. Apart from the USA and Turkey, our designer from Japan and our furniture manufacturer from Dubai join us from time to time, allowing us to "master" all the time zones in the world. We learn new things and try to solve new problems every day. It is a challenging and beautiful experience to do a "literally" multinational project. As an interior design company, our vast experience in the field taught us that adapting to new and unexpected conditions easily is as important as design and construction.
When it comes to everyday life, there is a "stay home order" in Washington DC, which means "do not go out unless it is mandatory". Therefore, the streets are empty; we can only see people shopping or doing sports. If you want to enter the stores, a mask is mandatory, and only a certain number of people are allowed in. Especially on the weekends, the city is a full-on outdoor gym; you can adapt better to the environment if you walk, run, or lie on the grass and do a couple of sit-ups. It is sometimes sorrowful to be away from our families and loved ones, but we take full advantage of the technology and push the boundaries. So, what happens now? Although the return is not clear as the flights are still off, we are looking forward to the arrival of the assembly team from Turkey, focusing on the progress of the high-end restaurant fit-out projects, hoping to provide better news in the following article.
Love from the USA.
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