Cable chaos: Restaurant by Kengo Kuma

In an instance of high-grade upcycling, Japan's star architect Kengo Kuma has given a small but very popular Tokyo restaurant a fascinating new outfit. Thousands of old cables in every colour of the rainbow have been used in the renovation and re-styling of Tetchan, a tiny suburban bar famed locally for its grilled meat skewers known as yakitori. Along with cables, molten acrylic by-products have been employed in the design of the bar and stools on the ground floor, giving the furnishings the appearance of ice. But things get really colourful up on the first floor with LAN cables embellishing the furniture and walls in a variety of hues. The street in which Tetchan is located is a definite "hot spot" known for its interesting boutiques, '…a wonderful side street that still retains the atmosphere of the black market stalls of the post-war years', as Kengo Kuma puts it. So it's fitting that his makeover of the yakitori restaurant is a prime example of creative recycling.