completion

1998.04

location

Akashi, Hyogo

photo

Hiroyuki Hirai

This shop is located in a department complex of several buildings built in what was once a foreign settlement in Kobe. Kobe is an old historical port town that was open to foreign courtiers after the Meiji period. I created a space which is not contemporary and timely but of permanent character, because gathering passengers in this shop is more refined than those in other cities.
The shop space consisted of many materials such as limestone, frost glass, mirror, non-glazed mirror, aluminum panel, and laminated wood. As a result it not only had a gentle feeling more than those of other shops but also plural lines of flow mixed in the space which was assembled in basic forms. Passengers will catch sight of different landscapes from different vantage points and be conscious of sequence of landscapes whenever they walk in the shop.
I regarded the whole of this shop as creating a small city or a landscape.