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Parisian studio RDAI has designed a store on Tokyo’s prestigious Omotesando Avenue for fashion house Hermès, which was designed to evoke aspects of Japanese nature and culture. More
Wood-wool cement-board walls and concrete tabletops feature in this Tokyo restaurant interior by Japanese architect Keiji Ashizawa.Located a few minutes walk from Kawaguchi station in one of Tokyo’s largest commuter towns, Grillno is a cosy, 26-seat restaurant that serves a menu of smoked and grilled dishes.
Top image: tables and chairs made from concrete, steel and wood furnish the interior. Above: dim lighting sets the mood
Built on the second floor of a concrete apartment building, the moodily lit interior features walls made from grey wood wool cement board alongside oak floors and doors.
An open kitchen with a long concrete counter allows diners to watch the chefs at work as they eat.
“There are two fundamental inspirations,” said Ashizawa, “the building materials used for the thirty-year-old concrete apartment building and the food ingredients the restaurant uses daily.”
The textured walls are made from grey wood wool cement board
The 62-square-metre restaurant only opens in the evening, so guests typically experience the space at sunset or after dark.
“The space gets some natural daylight from the entrance,” Ashizawa told Dezeen. “The gentle light from the setting sun creates a spectacular atmosphere during the opening hours.”
A concrete counter stretches along the length of the open kitchen
The restaurant’s owner is a friend of the Tokyo-based architect, as well as a regular collaborator.
“Since starting his career as a chef, I have been supporting him with the planning of his restaurants — and enjoying eating what he cooks, of course,” Ashizawa explained.
“As Grillno is a restaurant specialised in smoked and grilled dishes, we began by planning an open kitchen and a long concrete counter around the kitchen so that people could enjoy watching the chef cook while eating.”
A suspended steel lamp hovers over the concrete counter
A thin, long steel suspension lamp hangs above the concrete counter to create an even light for dining.
“We believe that good restaurants can welcome people in many situations, whether you come by yourself, with your friends and family or for your night out,” continued Ashizawa.
“To make the most out of the space as possible, we planned different types of seating arrangements.”
Campana brothers use hollow terracotta blocks for São Paulo Aesop store
These include the rounded counter, which seats up to 14 diners, alongside two cosy wooden tables for couples that are tucked away in a recess, and three tables that seat up to four people on a mix of chairs and benches.
Dining tables for couples are placed in a recess
“With a few rough materials, worked expertly by craftsmen, we tried to achieve a relaxing atmosphere with moments of tension to match the food and hospitality,” explained Ashizawa.
Incorporating industrial materials that are generally perceived as “rough” into commercial interiors is popular among architects and designers.
Lisbon-based Inês Brandão has created a kitchen from oriented strand board inside a converted barn home in Portugal, while brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana applied hollow ceramic bricks, typically used to build external walls, in a shop interior for Aesop in Sao Paulo.
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Hazard lines and metal shelving are some of the industrial finishes that Torafu Architects has included in bag brand Freitag’s store in Kyoto – which even includes its own workshop.Freitag’s Kyoto store, which is shortlisted in the small retail interior category of the 2020 Dezeen Awards, occupies what was formerly two separate retail units in the city’s Nakagyo-ku district.
The interiors of the store have been designed by Torafu Architects to look like Freitag’s logistics warehouse at the brand’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
Top image: the store’s exterior. Above: hazard lines have been painted on some of the store’s surfaces
Industrial-style details have been incorporated throughout the 80-square-metre space, which the architecture practice said they left in a “skeleton state”. For example, black-and-yellow hazard lines have been painted around one of the store’s structural columns.
Similar lines appear beneath the green cash desk. Just opposite sits a matching rubber-topped counter where customers will be able to set down and inspect any potential purchases.
PVC flap curtains were used to screen off the shop’s storeroom, which is enclosed by a volume clad in wood-wool boards. Simple strip lights have also been fitted across the ceiling.
Freitag’s bags are displayed on metal shelves or stored in drawers
Bags are displayed on metal shelves or on top of pallets which have been stacked up in the store’s front window.
Uniform rows of drawers that run across the entire left-hand side of the store contain more Freitag bags, each of which is crafted from recycled truck tarpaulin.
The brand first removes any eyelets or straps left on the tarps before cutting, washing and turning them into a range of different bag models such as backpacks, totes or holdalls.
Freitag’s Sweat-Yourself-Shop is a tiny factory for making bags
Towards the rear of the store is a workshop, where customers will be able to experiment with using tarp offcuts themselves and turn them into a small accessory of their choice.
The store includes a workshop where customers can make their own accessories
More industrial touches appear on Freitag’s facade, where a red-steel beam has been installed in place of the wall that once divided the two retail units.
A large drawing of a truck has also been created on the store’s side elevation so that customers “never forget the origin of every unique specimen”.
The store’s side elevation features a mural of a truck
Torafu Architects was founded in 2004 by Koichi Suzuno and Shinya Kamuro. The practice’s Freitag Kyoto store will compete against four other projects in the small interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
Amongst them is an Aesop store in Shinjuku, which features a contrasting mix of steel and plaster surfaces.
Also on the list is Small Icon, a tiny bakery in Yokohama that’s decorated in the same warm, golden hues as a loaf of bread.
Photography is by Taichi Ano.
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Seating that resembles bars of soap and pipe-like clothing rails appear inside this Issey Miyake store in Osaka’s Minamisemba neighbourhood, which was designed by Shingo Noma.The store, monikered Issey Miyake Semba, is shortlisted in the large retail interior category of the 2020 Dezeen Awards.
Japanese designer Shingo Noma created the interiors to reference Osaka’s long history of maritime trade – the city’s port has been in operation since before the year 300 AD.
The store’s exterior features a sculpture that looks like a tap
“Linking the city of water, Osaka, with the continuous circulation of interesting ideas that bubble up from making things at Issey Miyake to the image of the store, I arrived at the design concept of a ‘fount of creativity’,” explained Noma, who is also art director of the gallery inside Issey Miyake’s Kyoto branch.
“If you turn on the faucet, there will always be a gushing flow of interesting ideas.”
Water-inspired decor details have therefore been introduced at every point in the store. A four-pronged silver sculpture that looks like the handle of a traditional tap has been mounted on the facade, just above the brand’s logo.
Concrete covers most of the store’s interior
Inside, on the store’s ground floor, garments are hung from bending metal rails that have been shaped to mimic water pipes.
The same pipe-like tubing supports the display tables, which all feature white, glossy countertops – almost reminiscent of the inner lining of bathtubs or sinks.
Naoto Fukasawa inserts Issey Miyake store into 132-year-old Kyoto townhouse
Guests can relax on the white, blue and grey seating poufs that have been dotted across the room. Each one has a wide, rounded form and a raised lip running around its outer edge, emulating the shape of a bar of soap.
The clothes rails and legs of the display tables are meant to look like water pipes
The same fixtures can be seen down in the store’s basement, which also includes an exhibition space. At the time of opening, it showed a series of works by Japanese illustrator Seitaro Kuroda, including his various depictions of boats and ships.
Surfaces throughout the store, including the floors, have been washed over with concrete. The ceiling and its network of exposed service ducts have been rendered in white.
An exhibition area can be found in the store’s basement
Issey Miyake Semba will go head-to-head against five other retail spaces in this year’s Dezeen Awards. Amongst them is high-end fashion store The Webster, which occupies a rotund, pink-concrete building in Los Angeles designed by architect David Adjaye.
Also on the shortlist is the streetwear brand Supreme’s San Francisco store, where studio Brinkworth has installed a huge skateboarding bowl.
Photography is by Masaya Yoshimura and Copist.
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Japanese architect Uoya Shigenori stripped back and reconfigured this 100-year-old townhouse in Kyoto to create moody and tranquil interiors for Maana Kamo guesthouse.Located in the historic Higashiyama District, the hotel was designed by Shigenori for Maana Homes, the owner of a collection of luxury retreats hidden within some of the Japanese city’s old streets.
The main living room inside Maana Kamo guesthouse
The goal of the renovation was to preserve and expose the dwelling’s original structure while creating a minimalist retreat for quiet contemplation.
It has been shortlisted for the hotel and short stay interior of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2020.
Its guestroom can be adapted into a yoga space
“Preserving and highlighting the house’s imperfectly aged beauty is the backbone of our design philosophy,” said Maana Homes.
“The beauty and soul of a traditional Japanese townhome is in its structural elements.”
The kitchen has a central island covered with layers of Urushi
Prior to the renovation, Maana Kamo was in a poor condition with unsightly vinyl wall coverings, tile ceilings and broken floorboards.
These finishes were all removed, exposing the old house’s rough, wooden structure and original walls that are made from clay.
A double vanity features in the new moody bathroom
These original details have been teamed with dark, moody furnishings and subdued lighting, alongside new timber walls and floors lined with traditional straw tatami mats.
Ornament is kept to a minimum throughout, while storage spaces for the hotel staff are disguised within the walls.
Events space opens inside revamped century-old machiya house in Kyoto
The lack of ornament is to ensure Maana Kamo guesthouse is “visually quiet” and free from distraction, providing occupants with space to slow down and reflect.
It also allows rooms to be easily adapted, for example, a guest room on the second floor can be quickly converted into a space for yoga and meditation.
The decoration is limited to a few handcrafted ornaments
One of the biggest changes Shigenori made to the dwelling was the repositioning of the kitchen from a narrow space at the rear of the dwelling to a larger area at the front.
This made space for a large kitchen island that is covered with layers of Urushi – a traditional Japanese lacquer made of tree sap that is water-resistant –and a wall of wooden cabinetry and shelves filled with local, handcrafted kitchenware.
The building’s original structure clay walls are exposed throughout
Where the old kitchen once stood, Shigenori has inserted a double-vanity bathroom with a shower that overlooks a private garden at the rear of the dwelling.
The guesthouse is complete with an oversized Japanese-style bathtub that is accessed from the living room. It has a view out to the private garden and is intended to evoke the feeling of bathing in an onsen – a Japanese bathing facility positioned around a hot spring.
Its old and dark wooden structure has also been revealed throughout
In 2016, Shigenori collaborated with Masashi Koyama on the restoration of a century-old machiya house in Kyoto to create an events space. Similarly to Maana Kamo, the goal of the design was to celebrate the architecture and history of the space.
Other projects up for short stay interior of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2020 include the small Escondido Oaxaca Hotel in Mexico by Decada and Carlos Couturier and OHLAB’s extension of a rural hotel in Mallorca.
Photos are courtesy of Maana Homes.
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Coarse plaster walls offset glinting stainless-steel display fixtures in this restrained store that architecture studio Case-Real has designed for Aesop in Shinjuku, Tokyo.The Aesop store occupies a glass-fronted retail unit in Shinjuku, a buzzing, tourist-heavy ward of Tokyo populated with bars, eateries and neon-lit billboards.
Case-Real used just two materials to create the store’s simple interior
When it came to designing the store’s interiors, Case-Real wanted to capture both what it describes as a sense of “artificial chaos” that permeates Shinjuku and the natural quality of Aesop’s skincare products.
The locally based studio decided to use two contrasting materials that it felt reflected the dichotomy of natural and artificial – plaster and steel.
Plaster covers the store’s walls, while steel has been used for display fixtures
All of the store’s gently curving walls are coated with coarse beige plaster, which leaves behind a textured surface finish.
The same plaster has been applied to a section of the store’s facade, creating a simple backdrop for Aesop’s logo.
Aesop’s creative director selects significant moments from the brand’s first book
Paint in the same beige hue has been washed across the ceiling and floor.
A counter where customers can test products is also made from steel
Shiny stainless steel has then been used to craft a series of lengthy display shelves that bend in line with the walls and several low-lying cabinets where extra stock can be hidden away, complete with steel handles.
The metal has additionally been used to make the store’s service desk, as well as a long counter inbuilt with round washbasins where customers are invited to test out products or observe demonstrations from staff.
A border of steel has also been created around the entrance doorway.
Plaster gives the walls a rough surface finish
The only other feature that Case-Real has incorporated in the store is a chunky plaster bench seat supported by cylindrical steel legs.
It has been placed directly in front of a window that looks onto the busy streets of Shinjuku, allowing customers to quietly sit and people-watch.
Plaster also appears on the store’s facade
Case-Real was established in the year 2000 and is led by designer Koichi Futatsumata. Four years ago, the studio designed the interiors of another Aesop store in the Japanese city of Sapporo, covering its walls with locally-sourced volcanic stone.
The studio’s Aesop Shinjuku store is shortlisted in the small retail interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards. It will compete against projects such as the Pinocchio, a tiny 4.5-metre-wide bakery in Yokohama, and the Glossier pop-up in Seattle, where products are displayed amongst grassy mounds covered in wildflowers.
Photography is by Daisuke Shima.
Project credits:
Design: Koichi Futatusmata, Yuki Onita (Case-Real)Construction: &SLighting plan: BRANCH lighting design (Tatsuki Nakamura)
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Design studio I IN has used warm, golden hues to decorate the Pinocchio bakery in Yokohama, Japan, which displays bread and pastries on minimalist shelves.Measuring at just 4.2 metres wide, Pinocchio sits in front of Oguchi train station and has been decorated to match the delicacies sold within.
The tiny bakery project, which I IN also calls Small Icon, has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the small retail interior category.
Top image: Pinocchio has been decorated to match the delicacies sold inside. Above: The bakery is just 4.2 metres wide
“Though the space was extremely limited, the store asked to have a strong identity with the facade and interior,” said I IN.
“Vivid gradient and soft textures that express the quality and colour of the bread are spread both inside and outside the store,” added the studio.
“It expresses the soft charm of the bread itself and allows the customer to feel the world of bread with their entire body.”
Pinocchio is spelt out in a slim, sans serif font above the doorway
The interior and exterior walls are rendered in a textured material that has been painted with a golden hue, like the crust of a freshly baked loaf or a flaky croissant.
“A plasterer who works in the performing arts collaborated with us,” said the studio. “Along with the vivid colour, the surface has a dense and bold texture.”
The interior and exterior walls are rendered in a textured material
Pinocchio is spelt out in a slim, sans serif font above the wide, square doorway. Glazed doors are set deep into the thick outer walls.
Six bakeries and sweets shops with delectable interiors
Inside, the ceilings have been painted to match the crust-coloured walls.
A corridor of wooden floorboards runs down the centre of the shop, flanked by corridors of flooring that have been delicately sponge-painted in bready colours.
The bakery interior features crust-coloured walls
The bakery has only 30 square metres of floor space, so the designers created an uncluttered interior that focuses on the products.
Two rows of minimal floating shelves made of wood run along both walls and around corners. Spotlights on the ceiling and under the topmost shelves bathe the baked goods in a soft glow.
Two rows of minimal floating shelves line the walls
Based in Tokyo, I IN is a design studio that was founded in 2018 by Yohei Terui and Hiromu Yuyama.
More bakeries with interiors that are good enough to eat include this sugar-pink bakery in Ukraine and an artisanal flour shop and bakery in Canada painted in shades of caramel.
Photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.
Project credits:
Client: Yokohama shokusanArchitect: I INConstructor: LegorettaLighting design: I IN
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Oak chairs sit amongst paper yarn-wrapped columns within this Blue Bottle Coffee cafe in Yokohama, Japan created by Keiji Ashizawa Design and Norm Architects.The Blue Bottle Coffee cafe occupies a glass-front building in Yokohama’s bustling business district, Minatomirai, and looks out across a leafy public park.
This setting became a key point of reference for Tokyo-based studio Keiji Ashizawa Design, which has exclusively decked out the interiors of the cafe with natural materials.
Top image: Paper yarn wraps around the cafe’s columns. Above: A curved bar is at the centre of the floor plan
“We have aimed to create an atmosphere which welcomes the local community by mainly using wood, inspired by the park located by the Blue Bottle Coffee Minatomirai,” said the studio’s eponymous founder, Keiji Ashizawa.
“The building acts as the main character of the park and provides a feeling of kindness with the natural materials in the industrial-looking landscape.”
A local park inspired the natural material palette of the cafe
The open floor plan of the cafe is dominated by a huge half-moon service bar, behind which staff prepare drink orders. Its base is clad with slats of light-hued timber, while its countertop is made from flecked grey stone.
Pale timber has additionally been used for the cafe’s flooring and its circular tables. Timber also forms smaller decorative elements like the menu board and a couple of oversized, ring-shaped lights that have been suspended from the ceiling.
Norm Architects designed the seating throughout the cafe
A series of white, spherical pendant lamps that hang above the cafe’s high counter provide extra light as evening falls.
Keiji Ashizawa Design and Norm Architects pare back Tokyo apartments
In keeping with the natural material palette, braided paper yarn has been wound around the lower half of the grey support columns that run along the periphery of the room.
Some of the chairs are upholstered in creamy leather
Keiji Ashizawa Design asked long-term collaborators, Copenhagen-based practice Norm Architects, to devise a range of seating for the project.
The practice designed three chair models made from Japanese oak wood: a traditional cafe-style chair, a tall bar stool and a slightly more formal dining chair that’s partially upholstered in creamy leather – its low, curving backrest is meant to draw subtle reference to the cafe’s architecture.
The frames of the chairs are made from Japanese oak
All of the pieces were produced by Karimoku Case Study, the sister brand of Japanese manufacturer Karimoku which collaborates with architects across the world to design furnishings.
Norm Architects and Keiji Ashizawa Design had first worked with Karimoku Case Study back in 2019 on the launch of its inaugural Kinuta collection.
The facade of the cafe is made from glass
“For us, there couldn’t be a better partner to team up with than Karimoku,” explained Frederik Werner, partner at Norm Architects.
“They uphold a unique quality and approach to the manufacturing of wooden furniture, maintaining a focus on the craftsmanship combined with the latest robotics, making sure that their philosophy of ‘high-tech, high-touch’ is truly embedded in each furniture piece leaving the factory.”
Customers can spill out onto an outdoor seating area
This is one of several Blue Bottle Coffee cafes in Japan, with others located in Tokyo, Kyoto and Kobe.
The coffee brand was founded by James Freeman in 2002, starting out as a small roastery in Oakland, California before growing into a network of cafes across the US and Asia.
Last year saw Blue Bottle Coffee open its first branch in South Korea, which was designed by Schemata Architects. The cafe is situated in the artsy neighbourhood of Seongsu and features sparse interiors dotted with timber furniture and red-brick display plinths.
Photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.
Project credits:
Design: Keiji Ashizawa & Norm ArchitectsConstruction: #TankFurniture: Karimoku Case Study
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