Keiji Ashizawa

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      Wooden furniture and artworks decorate Hiroo Residence in Tokyo

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      Designer Keiji Ashizawa used muted tones to make the most of the sunlight in this apartment in central Tokyo, which features wooden art pieces and furniture that was specially designed for the space.

      For the Hiroo Residence, named after its location in the city’s Hiroo neighbourhood, Ashizawa wanted to underline the quality of the light in the flat.
      A cut-out wall lets light into the hallway, which has an artwork by Sara MartinsenIn the open-plan kitchen and living room, light streams in from a balcony, and the designer took advantage of this light source by creating a cut-out wall so that the light carries through to the hallway next to it.
      “I think you can see we have a very nice sunlight here,” he told Dezeen during a walkthrough of the apartment. “So I didn’t want to use white, as it would be too bright – instead I used muted, subtle tones.”
      A wooden artwork by Atelier Plateau and a slatted sideboard decorate the living roomHe also wanted Hiroo Residence to feel like a peaceful place to come home to in a busy city, using natural materials to create a calm ambience.

      “Outside it’s super noisy but inside it’s very quiet, so I chose muted tones that also fuse with the materials; the wood and the stone,” Ashizawa said.
      The tranquil 200-square-metre apartment, which overlooks the Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park, has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a kitchen and dining area, a small workspace and plenty of storage spaces.
      Shaker-informed chairs and a wooden light were used for the kitchenBefore designing the interior, Ashizawa changed the layout of the flat to make it more open, taking out an existing hallway to create a bigger dining space.
      “Our goal was to design a space that can only be created by meticulously crafting from the smallest detail to the furniture, resulting in a quiet, comforting, and inspiring atmosphere with little noise, surrounded by natural materials crafted with tactility,” Ashizawa said of the design.
      Keiji Ashizawa used a neutral colour palette for the homeHe worked with the Japanese wooden furniture company Karimoku on the project, which is the eighth in its Karimoku Case Study series that sees it collaborate with architects on bespoke furniture and interior projects.
      As a result, wood was used throughout Hiroo Residence, with white-stained oak covering many of the floors.

      Karimoku opens Kyoto showroom informed by traditional houses and temple gardens

      Ashizawa also worked with Karimoku to create wooden window frames and sliding doors, which were placed throughout the flat to add privacy without taking up too much space.
      The furniture matches the wooden interior details and includes two pieces created especially for the project – a sideboard with decorative wooden slats and a dining chair with a woven seat that was inspired by both Shaker designs and classic Scandinavian chairs.
      Wooden panels cover the bedroom wallsIn the bedroom of Hiroo Residence, wooden wall panels add a tactile and more natural feel, which is echoed in the built-in shelves and drawers in the en-suite walk-in closet.
      Cabinets were also used to hide different functions in the kitchen, where a large wooden unit takes up an entire wall.
      An entire wall is taken up by a wooden kitchen unitEven smaller details in the flat, such as the long kitchen lamp, were made from the material.
      Artworks in wood by Danish art studio Atelier Plateau and the artist Sara Martinsen, which were created especially for the space,  decorate the walls.
      Karimoku has worked with Ashizawa on a number of projects, including its second showroom which just opened in Kyoto, Japan, and the Azabu Residence Case Study, where the designer referenced mid-century American design.
      The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.

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      Karimoku opens Kyoto showroom informed by traditional houses and temple gardens

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      Designer Keiji Ashizawa has created the interior of Japanese furniture brand Karimoku’s second showroom, which features a combination of its own wooden furniture and pieces by local artists and artisans.

      Set in a three-storey building, the brand describes Karimoku Commons Kyoto as a “hybrid space”, which will function as a showroom and also house office spaces for employees.
      The space is located inside a former machiya – a traditional Japanese wooden townhouse – in Kyoto, a city known for its temples, Shinto shrines and gardens.
      The showroom is located in a Kyoto townhouseAshizawa, who has worked with Karimoku for years and also designed its first showroom in Tokyo, looked to the history of both the city and the building when designing the interior.
      “I really wanted to use the language of the townhouse and also took inspiration from Kyoto gardens,” Ashizawa told Dezeen.

      For the showroom’s ground floor area, he drew on the doma areas in traditional Japanese homes, which had bare dirt floors and functioned as a bridge between the indoors and the outdoors.
      It features wood furniture and wood panelling by KarimokuHere, Ashizawa placed furniture in light-coloured wood, including chairs by British architect Norman Foster and pieces by Danish studio Norm Architects and Ashizawa himself.
      The floor is grey concrete, which was matched by pale-grey plaster walls and a ceiling in the same colour.
      Art and ceramics by Japanese artists decorate the spaceWooden slats, of a kind traditionally used in Kyoto homes and stores to let light into buildings while maintaining privacy, cover parts of the glazing at the front of the room.
      Light wooden panelling by Karimoku hides built-in storage spaces and functions as a shelf.
      The first floor has a darker colour paletteOn the first floor, Ashizawa chose to use a darker colour palette, with furniture pieces in smoked oak wood and flooring and wall panels in dark wood.
      “When you visit a tourism house or a temple in Kyoto, the old wood, like on the temple floors, is a very dark colour,” he said. “I thought such a colour had to be the key colour [for the project].”
      The layout of this area also drew on the walkways and paths of Kyoto’s temple gardens.
      “It’s more of a guide to how to articulate the space,” Ashizawa explained. “We can think of the furniture as an art piece or a stone – it’s a kind of installation.”
      A wall alcove functions as a tokonoma display spaceThe top floor of Karimoku Commons Kyoto will function as a “library space” and showcase the latest collections and collaborations from the contemporary Case Study, Karimoku New Standard, MAS and Ishinomaki Laboratory brands.
      Throughout the showroom, earthy ceramics and rough-hewn sculptures by Japanese artists were used as decoration, which add to the organic feel brought by the wood.

      Keiji Ashizawa draws on “whiteness of tofu” for tactile Saga Hirakawaya restaurant

      Pieces by ceramics brand Nota Shop in the nearby Shiga prefecture and vases by Kyoto artist Ai Ono were among the objects chosen for the space by stylist Yumi Nakata, who worked with Ashizawa on the project.
      These were placed on tables and shelves as well as in wall recesses informed by traditional Japanese tokonoma alcoves, where homeowners would display artistic objects.
      Keiji Ashizawa designed the interior of the showroom”There are so many places in which to show something,” Ashizawa said of Karimoku Commons Kyoto.
      “In a traditional Japanese house, there are many spaces like this, showing paintings, ceramics or flowers, which I think is one of the beauties of the culture of the Japanese house. In many ways, we tried to make such a space.”
      The top floor displays a variety of furniture piecesKarimoku, which is Japan’s largest wooden furniture brand, started out making traditional Japanese furniture.
      It now also works with a number of designers on the more contemporary sub-brands Case Study, Karimoku New Standard, MAS and Ishinomaki Laboratory, which are the four brands that will be sold in the Karimoku Commons Kyoto showroom.
      The Kyoto space is Karimoku’s second showroom after TokyoAshikawa hopes the space will help to promote a modern design aesthetic.
      “Karimoku is trying to promote modern furniture in modern life,” he said. “I need to explain about the Japanese living space situation – for example, in 1960, sixty years ago, we didn’t have much furniture in the living space.”
      “And then the modern living space came to Japan and people started buying their tables, chairs and even the sofa; it’s quite new, so people don’t necessarily understand how to use a sofa,” he added.
      “Japanese living spaces can be too messy, so it’s quite nice to show them like this.”
      Previous projects by Ashizawa include a curve-shaped tofu restaurant and a Blue Bottle Coffee shop in Kobe. Karimoku recently collaborated with Foster on a collection of furniture used in the architect’s Foster Retreat in Martha’s Vineyard.
      The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.

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      Keiji Ashizawa draws on “whiteness of tofu” for tactile Saga Hirakawaya restaurant

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      Japanese designer Keiji Ashizawa paid homage to the food on offer when designing the Saga Hirakawaya tofu restaurant, which hopes to revitalise a depopulated community in Japan.

      Located in the hot spring resort Takeo Onsen in Japan’s Saga prefecture, the curved restaurant was designed to blend in with the surrounding environment, including a historical tower gate.
      The Saga Hirakawaya restaurant is located next to a historical tower gate”Tofu, a food culture rooted in the region of Saga prefecture, is the main ingredient of this restaurant,” Ashizawa told Dezeen. “Since tofu is a simple food, we chose materials with a sense of simplicity such as wood, concrete and walls finished in plaster to bring out the texture in the materials.”
      “With a background of wishing to use local materials, wood was used for the entrance, windows and undersurface of eaves to match the wood from Ariake, a furniture brand based in Saga.”
      Volcanic ash was used for the plasterThe studio also used shirasu – a type of volcanic ash from Mount Sakurajima in Kyushu – as a plastering material for the building’s exterior walls.

      Saga Hirakawaya has a curved design forming a semi-open interior courtyard, which holds a foot bath with hot spring water that aims to encourage the restaurant’s customers to eat and stay outside the establishment for longer.
      Wooden furniture matches the pared-down interiorInside the 435-square-metre restaurant, the interior matches the exterior with pale grey walls that nod to the food on the menu.
      “As the ceiling and walls are curved, pale colours are used to extend the light beautifully in the restaurant, complemented by the use of grey colours on the walls and floors,” Ashizawa said. “It also signifies the whiteness of the tofu.”

      Keiji Ashizawa adds Blue Bottle Coffee shop to Kobe department store

      The restaurant’s ground floor houses a shop selling tofu-based products and sweets, while the first floor is home to a restaurant serving onsen yudofu – a type of tofu made using hot spring water.
      An open atrium connects the shop and restaurant, which both feature large windows.
      The ground floor houses a shopCircular lamps made by local paper manufacturer Nao Washi hang over the tables while the wooden furniture was made by furniture brand Ariake, which manufactures in Saga prefecture.
      The decision to open the Saga Hirakawaya restaurant in Takeo Onsen was made by its owner, who was born and raised in the area and wanted to help revitalise the community, which has suffered from a population decline.
      Paper lamps hang over tables”Depopulation is inevitable in rural areas of Japan,” Ashizawa said. “But in order to revitalise a region, it is important to attract people to the area through tourism.”
      “The client decided to create a restaurant serving onsen yudofu, believing that the region’s unique culinary culture could be an incentive to visit the area for sightseeing.”
      A restaurant space is located on the first floor”We deeply sympathise with the client’s hope to make the most of the wonderful location in front of the historical tower gate of Takeo Onsen, an important cultural asset, and to combine it with the region’s unique food culture to attract tourists from both inside and outside of Japan, contributing to the revitalisation of the area,” he added.
      Other recent projects by Ashizawa include a Blue Bottle Coffee shop in Kobe and a mid-century-modern-informed residence in Tokyo.
      The photography is by Ben Richards.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Keiji Ashizawa DesignProject architect: Keiji Ashizawa, Kentaro Yamaguchi, Tsubasa FuruichiConstruction: Yamakami IncFurniture: Hirata Chair/LegnatecLighting: Saito Shomei/Nao Washi

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      Keiji Ashizawa adds Blue Bottle Coffee shop to Kobe department store

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      Japanese studio Keiji Ashizawa Design has created the interior of the Blue Bottle Coffee shop in Kobe’s Hankyu department store, taking advantage of its display windows to connect the cafe with the street outside.

      The 173-square-metre cafe, which shares the department store’s ground floor with a number of apparel brands, has five large display windows.
      To open the coffee shop up towards the street, designer Keiji Ashizawa turned one of the windows into a take-out counter.
      One display window was turned into a take-out counterThe remaining window niches were filled with blue built-in seating, creating a splash of colour among the wooden furniture.
      Inside the cafe, square-shaped and rectangular furniture nods to the graphic look of the facade and is contrasted by round tables and large circular ceiling lights.

      “The furniture is mainly made of domestic wood in collaboration with the Japanese furniture manufacturer Karimoku, who specializes in working with oak wood,” Ashizawa told Dezeen.
      Wooden furniture and terrazzo tabletops were used for the interiorThe studio also mixed in terrazzo amongst the wooden furniture to give the cafe a welcoming feel.
      “By placing a large terrazzo tabletop with fine textures created by mixing grounded glass into the material, it adds to the soft and welcoming atmosphere that identifies Blue Bottle Coffee and their hospitality,” Ashizawa said.

      Keiji Ashizawa builds Blue Bottle Coffee’s Tokyo outpost around volcanic-ash counter

      “It is also used for the low coffee table surrounded by the sofas, creating a sense of harmony and elegance throughout the space of the cafe,” he added.
      While the studio was unable to change the material of the existing rough concrete floor, the department store allowed it to create a discrete demarcation by polishing the floor underneath the central tables.
      Circular pendant lights were made from raw aluminiumLarge disc-shaped pendant lights add a sense of drama to the coffee shop’s pared-back design.
      “With the idea of creating a high ceiling within the space, the pendant lights were made from raw aluminum to complement the industrial structures,” Ashizawa said.
      “Six pendant lights are placed in the central space at equal distances in three zones, creating a sense of rhythm and spatial balance.”
      The concrete floor was polished in part of the cafeThe wooden furniture inside the Blue Bottle Coffe Hankyu cafe has mainly been kept in its natural colour, but Ashizawa added bright colour to some of the wood.
      “In the space with concrete structures, the yellow color was added to balance the combination of wood and concrete, and the blue color was placed as a contrast,” he said.
      “We also designed the space to fit in with the apparel brands that share the ground floor.”
      Shelves were painted a bright yellowAshizawa has previously created a number of cafes for the Blue Bottle Coffee company, including a Shanghai store decorated with traditional Chinese roof tiles and a Tokyo outpost with a volcanic-ash counter.
      The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Keiji Ashizawa DesignProject architect: Keiji Ashizawa, Tomohiko Fujishita, Masaru KiotyaConstruction: TankDesign supervision: Miyachi Office/Kunihiko MiyachiLighting design: Aurora/Yoshiki IchikawaFurniture: Karimoku Case Study/Ichinomaki Laboratory by KarimokuMetal works: Super Robot

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      Traditional Chinese roof tiles decorate the interior of Blue Bottle Coffee shop in Shanghai

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      Japanese studio Keiji Ashizawa Design has used traditional Chinese roof tiles as the key material at Blue Bottle Coffee’s latest shop in Shanghai to celebrate local culture.

      Set to open on Friday, the cafe is located on the first and second floors of a building connected to the Kerry Centre in downtown Shanghai, close to the over 1,000-year-old Jing’an Temple.
      The new Blue Bottle Coffee shop is located in downtown ShanghaiKeiji Ashizawa Design placed a total of 13,000 handmade brick tiles on the bar counter, stairwell wall and the lounge area of the cafe.
      This particular type of bricks, which have semi-circular edges, were made in Yixing, a nearby city that is known for its clayware manufacturing. A new smoking process was used for the surface of the tiles to increase their strength and create a subtle reflective effect.
      Bespoke handmade brick tiles were used to cover the bar counter”As Blue Bottle Coffee commits to create local communities around their cafes, we always determine the materials and design based on the local, both culture and history,” studio founder Keiji Ashizawa said.

      “Working on a project in mainland China as a Japanese architectural firm, I felt that there was an importance in considering the common aspects between the two cultures,” he added.
      “With that in mind, we looked through images I photographed and found an image of a roof I took from a restaurant in Chengdu, which inspired me to use roof tiles for the cafe.”
      The stairwell allows visitors to enjoy views of the coffee-making processA coffee bar that connects both floors is at the centre of the space, while seating and product displaying areas are arranged around it.
      According to Blue Bottle Coffee, this is to encourage customers to interact with the process of coffee making.
      An open lounge is on the second floor of the cafeThe stairwell is right next to the bar counter on the first floor so that when people walk up to the second floor, they are able to watch coffee being made at the bar area from different heights.
      An open lounge space at the second floor features a hanging paper light above a seating area with dark-brown furniture and leather cushions.

      Keiji Ashizawa designs Blue Bottle Coffee shop for “cave-like space” in Maebashi hotel

      Where the shop connects to the Kerry Centre, a series of semi-circular recessed seating areas have been carved out from the wall on both floors.
      The rounded shape of the seating areas not only responds to the roof tiles but also creates privacy for the customers dining in the cafe.
      Keiji Ashizawa Design used concrete in a variety of colours and textures all over the cafe, which has structural columns and slabs in raw concrete. Natural oak furniture was selected to add warmth to the interior.
      The seating areas are designed to reflect the shape of traditional Chinese roof tilesBlue Bottle Coffee was founded as a small roastery in Oakland, California, by James Freeman in 2002 and has since grown into a chain of cafes across the USA and Asia.
      This is the second Blue Bottle Coffee shop in mainland China. The first one was opened in February this year, designed by Schemata Architects, also in Shanghai.
      Previously, Keiji Ashizawa Design has designed three Blue Bottle Coffee shops in Japan.
      The photography is by Chen Hao.

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