Hasta La Ideas

Shelves at this Tokyo store by Ryo Matsui Architects look like comic books, complete with speech bubbles and motion lines (+ slideshow).

Named Tokyo’s Tokyo, the store sells Manga and Anime magazines and products at a shopping centre in Shibuya.

The shelves swell out from the walls while display counters have surfaces that curve up towards the edges, resembling giant stacks of comic books strewn across the floor.

A platform with wavy wooden steps is located at the centre of the shop for use as seating.

We’ve previously featured designs for a comic book museum, which you can see here.

See more shops on Dezeen »

Here’s some extra text from Ryo Matsui Architects:

We had designed the editorial shop “Tokyo’s Tokyo” that featured the theme of Manga and Anime. In this store, we not only treated the products which related Manga and Anime, but also aimed at the space that is penetrated with the culture and expression of Manga.

Site: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Client: Japan Airport Terminal Co. Ltd.
Principal Use: Shop
Total Floor Area: 171 sq m
Construction: NOMURA Co. Ltd
Design Period: 2011.09-2011.12
Construction Period: 2012.01-2012.03
Produce/Book Director: Yoshitaka Haba
Goods Select: Yu Yamada
Photo: Daici Ano

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Ryo Matsui Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Caitlin Mociun invites shoppers to her new store to dig through wares in a constantly changing installation

To properly experience Brooklyn-based designer Caitlin Mociun’s new Williamsburg store is to take a moment to explore each of the unusual clusters of objects that adorn the display tables, window sills and floor areas. Mociun wants you to peer into the ceramic bowls, to reach under the tables and display cases, and to lift up the vintage Moroccan rugs.

“In a retail store, you’re supposed to act like a grown up, and there’s a certain way that one behaves in a retail environment, and it’s not like having people reach under a piece of furniture and crouch on the ground and maybe dig through things,” says Mociun, who is best known for her elegant jewelry lines and Bauhaus-inspired clothing and textiles. “I’m hoping to give people an experience that is more fun, and have them discover something in a different way.”

Mociun also hopes her eclectic arrangements encourage customers to consider different uses for the objects in her store.”It’s about getting people to see functional pieces as art objects, to not just be like, ‘Oh, this is a cup,'” she says. “It’s like, ‘This is a cup, but you can also put it on a table and it also can be this beautiful thing that acts as a piece of art.'”

Included in Mociun’s unique collection of products are colorful coasters by Chen Chen and Kai Williams; bulbous stitched baskets and bags by Doug Johnston; assorted ceramic pieces by Blue Eagle Pottery, Eric Bonnin and Shino Takeda; knotted rope bracelets and necklaces by Wing Yau; leather Baggu bags, pouches, and keychains in black and neon; geometric jewelry by Samma; soap by Saipua; and a variety of beautiful objects by Iacoli and McAllister. The store’s centerpiece is, certainly, Mociun’s delicate rings, necklaces and bracelets, featured in two glass display cases.

Mociun began to see opening a retail store as a possibility after running her own pop-up shop in downtown Brooklyn in May 2011. The shop, which opened this past March, is located on the corner of brand new building on Wythe Avenue, a burgeoning shopping destination for design lovers, with Baggu Summer Shop and Pilgrim Surf + Supply just around the corner. “It’s just a really nice Brooklyn community of stores that actually support each other instead of compete with each other,” Mociun says.

Mociun, who receives new merchandise every week, continues to tweak the store’s product lines. She plans to streamline the ceramic collections the store carries, add some jewelry lines, and introduce a line of shoes. As the store’s products change, Mociun also plans to adjust the store’s layout, moving the modular furniture around in an effort to give customers a new shopping experience. “I kind of think of the whole space as an installation,” she says.

Mociun is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 8pm.

Designer Reiichi Ikeda has come up with a shop for Japanese fashion brand Wonderland that has a small wooden house inside.

Ikeda left the interior of the Not Wonder Store in Osaka bare with a glazed shop front and simple wooden rails and tables.

Bare timber has been used to construct the miniature house, which contains an office and fitting room.

Like a lot of projects we’ve featured from Japan, the shop uses materials that make it seem unfinished – check out more of them here.

We also recently featured two transparent facades from Japan – this exposed cedar house in Osaka prefecture and this glass box house near Kobe.

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

See more stories from Japan »

Photographs are by Yoshiro Masuda.

Here’s some information from the designer:

This is an interior design for a clothing store and an atelier of the fashion brand Wonderland in Osaka, Japan. On my first visit, what made me feel as if it is outside even though there was the ceiling was that there wasn’t an entrance to define the border.

I made it a point to keep this strange and unique feeling, and tried making new interiors. I mean that I did not simply change the interior design to a radically new one, but I maximized the effect of the existing elements.

People very differently picture a world behind a closed door. So by setting up an entrance at the unimagined point, I expected a favorable effect on the “shift of the border”.

The area made by the shift of the border gets you a bit confused, and you will lose the idea where you are in or out. As a result, you find yourself coming in the shop.

Project Name: Not Wonder Store
Use: Clothing store
Location: 1-4-5-101, Toyosaki, Kita-ku, Osaka-city, Osaka, Japan 531-0072

Store floor area: 31.68 square meters
Completion of construction: Mar. 24, 2012
Interior Designer: Reiichi Ikeda
Photographer: Yoshiro Masuda

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by Reiichi Ikeda 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.