completion

1998.03

location

Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

photo

Hiroyuki Hirai

This shop is placed in the ground floor of a department in Shibuya that is a shopping area for the young. This is an accessory shop dealing mainly in little accessories, shoes and bags. I divided the space in this shop into two areas: shoes/bags and accessories, and gave each specific characters. I considered at first that I’d like to articulate the whole of the shop by creating a space that does not spread vaguely but correspond to each of the goods. I made these two spaces face to a passage inside the department store, but not to be open to this passage completely through translucent screen and with a closed facade. Therefore, it is possible to fulfill two functions such as: to give visual enjoyment while shopping, and as people pass by they are lured into the shop.
I imagined that I’d like to create a white, transparent and controlled space by having floating shelves or cases in reduced forms. I recognized that some meditative spaces and spaces of silence are necessary for the noisy environments of city department stores.