Hasta La Ideas

Japanese designer Reiichi Ikeda has built a wire mesh box in the middle of a fashion boutique in Osaka.

Chain-link fencing has been used for the walls of the box, which is separated into three parts and connected by rounded doorways.

Clothes rails have been positioned against the bare brick walls of the Martagon boutique and wood has been used for the counter and shelving.

Outside, a balcony made of chain-link fencing surrounds the shop window and the wooden entrance door.

Earlier today we featured another Osaka shop designed by Ikeda with a wooden house inside it.

Have a look at our Pinterest board of shops featured on Dezeen.

See more stories from Japan »
See more stories about shops »

Photographs are by Yoshiro Masuda.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Design concept:
This is an interior design for a specialty boutique in Osaka, Japan. The owner has their own world view and wants to share it with others that people should enjoy various fashion regardless of rules and genres, just like going off on adventures.

I constructed a design concept out of the keywords, going off on adventures, and designed a boutique where you can freely walk around as in going around the globe. I considered partitions as what can connect areas to each other, and I controlled the number of areas by using them in this space with too much good visibility.

The use of the undecorated chain-link fence is very clear, and can be a special element to differentiate the areas. The unique space gives you curiosity and a sense of anticipation as an adventure does.

Project Name: Martagon
Use: Clothing store
Location: 1F SOLEIL Minami-Horie, 1-15-10, Minami-Horie, Nishi-ku, Osaka-city, Osaka, Japan 550-0015
Store floor area: 66 sq m
Completion of construction: Mar 16, 2012
Interior Designer: Reiichi Ikeda
Photographer: Yoshiro Masuda

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Reiichi Ikeda appeared first on Dezeen.

More concrete from Tokyo: the headquarters of clothing company Neighborhood has a bare concrete and steel interior that reflects the heavy-duty aesthetic of the brand.

Designed by Japanese architects General Design, the warehouse-like building contains staff offices on its ground, mezzanine and first floors, and presentation areas and a car park occupy the two basement levels.

A double-height workspace is central to the design and is naturally lit from above by a row of clerestory windows.

Cement panels line the walls in this room, while plywood partitions separate spaces in the lower basement.

“We hope that this building will eventually be nicely worn out ” explain the architects, “like a piece of good vintage clothing that you’ve cherished for a long time.”

The building are located in the Shibuya district, close to the two main branches of the store.

We’ve featured a couple of other concrete buildings by General Design on Dezeen, including a shop with no windows.

See all our stories about concrete »

Photography is by Daici Ano.

There’s more text below from General Design:

NH Office Building
Shibuya, Tokyo

This is a head office building of a Tokyo-based apparel brand “Neighborhood” which offers basic clothing influenced by various subcultures associated with motorcycles, military, outdoor etc., located in Shibuya district in Tokyo.

The building consists of workspaces on the first and the second floors, garage and presentation room on the basement floors.

Since the company has a relatively small number of employees, it was not top priority to maximize office space.

Instead of typical office building plan, using entire floor area for office space with vertical circulation located in the back, we decided to allow more space for interconnectivity between workspaces on all floors, to enhance creative and productive work environment.

Long skylight is provided along the central axis, creating a sort of long and thin light well along the central axis.

All workspaces are located at different levels on both sides of the light well, and they are connected with gently inclined stairs running along the central axis.

The light well helps them to keep comfortable distance between all workspaces, while creating a sense of togetherness at the same time.

We intended to create rather bare and unembellished space like a warehouse. Finish materials are rough exposed concrete, fiber reinforced cement board, black painted steel and larch plywood.

We selected ordinary and rough materials used in industrial environment, in order to minimize the sense of “newness” and emphasized strong presence of each element.

We hope that this building will eventually be nicely worn out and be even more attractive as time goes by, like a piece of good vintage clothing that you’ve cherished for a long time. Our ambition is to propose future vintage architecture.

NH office building.
Architect: Shin Ohori / General Design

Location: shibuya Tokyo
Structural system: reinforced concrete

Site area: 402.17m2
Built area: 236.98m2
Total floor area: 992.31m2

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by General Design appeared first on Dezeen.

Chunky chipboard surfaces have been sanded and stained to look like marble at this Aesop skincare shop in Tokyo by Japanese studio Torafu Architects (+ slideshow).

A muted brown stain coats the wooden walls and countertops and bottles sit within recessed shelves and openings.

Two island counters accomodate hidden drawers and cupboards, sinks and a cash register.

Other Aesop stores we’ve published include a shop filled with translucent boxes on stilts and a kiosk made from newspapers.

See all our stories about Aesop »

See all our stories about Torafu Architects »

Photography is by Takumi Ota.

Here’s some more information from Torafu Architects:

Aesop Shin-Marunouchi – Torafu Architects

For Aesop, an Australian skincare brand celebrating its 25th year anniversary this year, we proposed an interior fit-out located in the Shin-Marunouchi Building. Concurrent to this, we also designed Aesop Yokohama Bay Quarter, which opened at the same time.

Aesop’s skincare products emphasise on maintenance to restore the skin’s natural health, and in a similar way we had chosen a key material that reflects this idea for the two stores. OSB (Oriented Strand Board) is a wood which has characteristic textures and patterns, and of which are accentuated are accentuated once sanded and stained in different ways. While associated as a rough material typically used in construction, as it is stained the wood adopts a stone-like appearance. The result is a distinct materiality which be felt throughout the store space.

At Aesop Shin-Marunouchi, the OSB has been stained with a brown colour to distinguish the store with its neighbours within the bright surrounding environment. The central band of display seen stretched across the back wall binds the store space to a single point of focus, naturally drawing customers towards the products.

In the foreground of the shops are stand-alone functional counters that allow the corner shop space to be freely circulated. Small stores require an efficient use of space, so the activities essential to the shop’s operation have been carefully considered and housed into the ‘floating’ boxes to assist in operational processes. We thought about how the volumes of these counters can be opened at various parts when required, and eventually closed back into a simple box.

Even located within a large commercial building, we have focused on how we can clearly reflect Aesop’s brand image into these stores.

Principle use: shop
Production: Ishimaru
Credit: Graphic design: Aesop
Building site: Shin-Marunouchi Building, Marunouchi, Tokyo Total floor area: 22.53m2
Design period: 2012.02-2012.06
Construction period: 2012.06

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by Torafu Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese designer Yusuke Seki and Spanish designer Jaime Hayón have designed a sweet shop in Yokohama where colourful liquids are displayed inside glass decanters, ready to be made into confectionary before customers’ eyes.

Seki designed the interior of the Papabubble store, while Hayón designed the glass containers, utensils and window details.

The interior walls are covered with white tiles that were sourced to match the 40-year-old ones that clad the exterior of the building.

Windows shaped as diamonds and octagons are arranged in rows across the doors like chocolates laid out in a tray.

Dezeen filmed an interview with Jaime Hayón during the 2010 London Design Festival – watch it here.

See all our stories about Jaime Hayón »
See images of the best shops from Dezeen on our Pinterest board »

Photography is by Takumi Ota.

Here’s some more text from the designers:

Papabubble the artisan candy shop in Yokohama was designed by Japanese designer Yusuke Seki collaboration with Jaime Hayon.

Papabubble – Caramels Artesans started in Barcelona in 2004, and has since launched all over the world. The candies are all hand made, and shows the process of making candy for a customer, and in doing so, entertaining kids and adult viewers alike.

The shop design resembles a laboratory, and shows off the finely presented handmade look of these experimental candies.

“Papabubble ” Yokohama launch:

Yokohama brunch is the third shop in Japan. The difference between this shop and most others is that it is especially design focused. Up until now, Papabubble shop has been a designed based on a laboratory style. However, this latest store was designed by Yusuke Seki with Jaime Hayon, and you can trace their strong and unique design values in the fine decorative details of the work. The location is an office area in Yokohama – a bay nearby Tokyo – and the store was lacerated street level of a building which was built about forty years ago, which meant Seki needed to embark upon extensive renovation to the building.

In emphasizing the new aspects of this design, Seki managed to create a strong correlation between INSIDE / OUTSIDE method.

Not only designing focus on interior design as physical territory of place to illuminate, but also Yusuke was integrate all relevant material such as location, architecture skin, time.

Using same element retrospectively, Yusuke create explore and cross over time scale but also interior wall are being part of facade and continually.

For the purposes of continuity, Seki found and used the same tile material which was use on out side wall forty year ago.This helps the outside wall for the interior wall, helping to ensure the authentic facade of the original building.

Because Seki’s space are seems simplicity and design focus on presence of space, Jaime took on the challenge of decorating the space in a way that added a stronger sense of character and identity. Ordinarily, Papabubble stores use laboratory tools to demonstrate the experimental process of making candy, but on this occasion Jaime design these tools deliberately with more personality and defined detail such as windows, utensils. Bottles are designed by Jaime, was inspired from the performance of candy by artisans.

Especially the bottles are normally icon of Papabubble store, but this time, these are one-off original made by Massimo Lunardon from venice.

These stunning crystal glasses are coloured by range type of liquid, this made the difference of design from other Papabubble brunch in all over the world.

Client: Papabubble
Art Direction, Interior design: Yusuke Seki
Furniture Design: Jaime Hayon

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and Jaime Hayón appeared first on Dezeen.

The timber-framed rooms of this house in Osaka prefacture by Japanese architects Suga Atelier are on show to the street though a transparent facade.

Above: photograph is by Yuko Tada

Named House of Cedar, the building has a cross-bracing cedar structure that is exposed inside both of its two storeys.

The glazed front elevation comprises an assortment of small square and rectangular windows, including three that can be opened.

The entrance is located on the side of the house and is sheltered beneath a faceted first-floor bulge that contains the bathroom.

Earlier this year Suga Atelier also completed a house with a faceted concrete exterior – see it here.

See all our stories about Japanese houses »

Photography is by the architects, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here are a few words from Shotaro Suga of Suga Atelier:

House of Cedar in Osaka pref. in Japan.

This house is made by small size wood of cedar.

We developed in a way new structural system which uses old wooden frame technique and steel bolts to make a free and warm inner space.

Today wood is used for structural members or finishing materials.

We thought we have to find a better way of using woods to be with trees.

Above: photograph is by Yuko Tada

Because trees are important part of nature, and also people’s good friend from ancient period.

We use many smaller size simple woods and weave woods together to make free and pleasing space which is continuous to surroundings.

We can live in a better way with trees.