While designing an intimate luxury resort in Uruguay for a South American entrepreneur, BAMO was asked to create a Japanese restaurant within another of his properties, the Grand Hyatt Santiago.  Unfolding like a puzzle and divorced from its hotel surroundings, Matsuri celebrates the elegance and finesse of both Japanese design and cuisine.  Design principles, such as “borrowed” scenery and juxtaposition of scale, transformed a tall, 2,000 square foot gallery space into a captivating and dynamic 83 seat restaurant on two floors.  Natural and minimally detailed, materials include sublime woods, handmade glass, irregular stones, iron, paper, grasscloth, rattan, silk, and a touch of lacquer.  Textures and finishes vary from rough to smooth, rubbed to polished. The restaurant includes a “street” façade separate from the hotel, entry, lounge, booth seating, sushi and teppanyaki bars, and private tatami rooms.