Hasta La Ideas

A blackened steel counter continues into a mirrored wall in this Aesop skincare shop by Japanese studio Torafu Architects (+ slideshow).

Torafu Architects installed a mirrored wall with a protruding counter in the long narrow shop for hair and skincare brand Aesop in Shibuya, Tokyo.

The dark counter appears to extend into the reflected space, whilst a cubbyhole of products interrupts the mirrored wall.

Narrow windows along the top of the opposite wall were revealed during the renovation process, allowing light to filter down into the slender interior.

Rectangles of brown glass surround the doorway, referencing the trademark brown bottles that line the walls of the store housed in blackened steel shelves.

An elongated demonstration sink sits just inside the entrance, also made from blackened steel, with a mirrored splashback from which simple garden taps protrude.

Reclaimed timber flooring marks the entrance to the shop and the remainder of the space is finished with sisal carpet.

Torafu Architects also designed Aesop’s Shin-Marunouchi store, in which chunky chipboard surfaces have been sanded and stained to look like marble.

Earlier this month we featured Aesop’s East Hampton store which has shelves supported by dowels slotted into pegboard walls.

We also previously interviewed the founder of Aesop, who explained why no two Aesop stores are the same. Read the interview »

See all our stories about Aesop interiors »
See all our stories about shops »

Here’s more information from Torafu:

For Australian skin care brand Aesop, we planned the interior and exterior of the new store on Meiji Street in Shibuya. The store is located on the first floor of a three-storey building situated between two taller buildings; the space is long and slender – 2.6m in width, 7.8m in depth and 3.9m in maximum height. We aimed to work with these proportions to provide a welcoming and intimate space for communication with customers.

The windows on one side wall, which appeared after demolishing of the former store’s interior, were the key for the design. On the wall opposite, we mounted a mirror to enhance scenery, extensity and light. The window located at the front of the store below has brown glass to represent Aesop’s traditional containers, and is incorporated in the shelves. In this way, the window is extended and the shelves are considered as a frame.

In order to limit the variety of the materials used, the shelves and counter are finished in blackened steel, which is also the basis for storage doors assimilated into the mortar wall or mirror wall; the basin that is Aesop’s feature is set near the entrance to effect a good view from the passage.

The door of the entrance and the facade sign are created from glass. The latter is composed of brown glass and corrugated glass, like patchwork – its colour and transparent appearance evoking Aesop’s brand image. A luminous sign on the wall and a selection of plants lend an outdoor atmosphere. As you move further into the interior, the floor texture changes from old wood to sisal carpet, subtly emphasising the transition from the busy street to the quietude of the store.

The post Aesop Shibuya
by Torafu Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Se avete un bel terrazzo ma nessun appoggio. Design by Torafu.
{Via}

Japanese studio Torafu Architects have designed a lidded bowl that can be split into two parts and mounted on the wall as shelves.

A quarter segment of the Catchbowl provides a shelf for the inside corner of a room, while the remaining part can be hung around a column edge.

The bowl has a sycamore veneer with a pattern of radiating triangles on the lid.

Torafu Architects also designed a set of paper hooks that look like curled pieces of adhesive tape – see all our stories about Torafu Architects here.

Photography is by Kenpo.

The following information is from Torafu Architects:

Catch-bowl

We proposed a shelf, focusing on corners, which inevitably exist in every room. When a hemisphere is divided into a quarter and three quarters, the quarter snugly fits into a concave corner and the three quarters onto a convex corner.

Based on this idea, we created a joyful and lightsome shelf that allows the user to adjust its height and also use it as a bowl to enjoy putting things in it just like playing a ball toss game in an athletics festival.

On the lid and at the bottom of the bowl, the radial patterns made by the alternately inverted wood grain of the shiny sycamore sliced veneer seem like twinkling stars.

By splitting into two parts, this bowl catches edges and catches things to become little shelves in the corners of a familiar room. When one part catches its counterpart, they become one whole bowl again.

Principle use: shelf
Production: Tanseisha Co., Ltd.
Material: Bent plywood, Sycamore, Stainless steel, magnet
Size: 400 mm
Design Period: 2010.04 – 2011.06
Production period: 2011.06 – 2011.07

See also:

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Tapehook by Torafu Architects	Shelframe by Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad	AC02 Jewel by Saskia Diez for e15

This house in Tokyo by Japanese practice Torafu Architects creates built-in furniture through the overlapping of interior spaces.

House in Ookayama is constructed on a narrow plot and has an entrance halfway along the elevation to maximise the size of the rooms, which are all accessed via a central staircase.

A storage space is inserted between the first and second floors and the floor of the living room also extends into the bedroom as a desk.

Photographs are by Daici Ano.

More by Torafu Architects on Dezeen »

More Japanese Houses on Dezeen »

The following is from the architect:

House in Ookayama by Torafu Architects:

A Collection of Large Furniture
Two generations live in this three-storied wooden house located in a Tokyo residential area.

The site corresponds to a 4.7 m wide × 16.5 m long fringe of the land where the owner’s parents lived.

Furthermore, the site is enclosed by buildings on three sides while its northern side abuts directly on the street.

The layout was designed to alleviate the impression of narrowness of the frontage in as much as possible and make the best use of the site’s conditions within the maximum volume allowed by setback restrictions.

To minimize pressure from the corridor on the frontage path we devised a basic plan that placed the entrance and stairs at the center while the bedroom and public areas are divided on a north-south axis.

Taking into account the fact that the occupants had many belongings, we incorporated a storage space shaped like a box between the 1st and 2nd floors.

Above the bedroom on the 2nd floor is a child’s room that resembles a huge table.

Each part is connected by stairs bearing a different design and the space between some of the steps can be used for storage as well.

The floor of the living room on the 2nd floor extends into the bedroom where it serves as a desk.

The toilet in the intermediary storage space protrudes into the 2nd floor to act as a light-well and a table.

The bay window in the wall connecting to the ceiling can also become a bench, giving a sense of loftiness to the whole space. Boards placed between the four sturdy walls passing through the 1st to 3rd floor become shelves and desks that make for a big storage wall by using the structure of the house.

This random-looking composition resembles multifunctional stacking,thus can be seen as one large piece of furniture.

We implemented a cross-section design free from the hierarchical configuration of a normal building, blurring the boundaries between building and furniture.

From the fitting of the terrace to the placement of the shelves and other minute details, we employed a construction method by aggregation, whereby each architectural component becomes a piece of furniture.

This makes the house a vessel that allows for perpetual change to take place and leaves enough leeway for its inhabitants to add their own touch after they move in.

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SN.House by atelierA5	House in Kohgo by Yutaka Yoshida & Assoc.	Y House by TOFU