completion

1998.03

location

Chuo-ku, Osaka

photo

Hiroyuki Hirai

Namba, one of the downtowns in the south of Osaka, is famous as a shopping and amusement area for the people. This shop was placed in the ground floor in one of the biggest department store complex. There are two entrances, one faces to an outside street. Therefore, I made the plan of this shop a Z shape by employing the original shape of this building and have a fascinating place for people just to pass through inside the shop. I created somewhat a casual space with a lot of visual appeal, for I imagined this shop as a common area where many people, young and old, gather. The materials of the furnitures (pure wood and aluminum plates) are rougher and more casual in finish than those of other shops. The ceiling is left to its original shape. It is only in this shop that I employed a yellow finish for the floor in this series of via bus stop shops. While the shop responds to the context of this city it is an area for people to enjoy readily, just by dropping in and passing through, I imagined this shop to be some heterogeneous place for the city.