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Architects: ambientdesigns
- Area: 113 m²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:Masato Chiba
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Manufacturers: Ashford Japan, Lilikara, Osmocolor/Osmo & Edel
Tracing - Interior design for a complex consisting of a 'gallery' for exhibitions of pop art, fashion, and commercials, a 'store' for sales of exhibition-related goods, and a 'studio' for filming and recording. The floor plan takes into account the fact that the site is a street-level tenant on Omotesando and the deep plan shape, and is arranged in the following order from the front: store, gallery, and studios for use by related parties only.
The image of the facility presented by the client was that of a 'kiosk' on the street or at a station. Therefore, we aimed to create a kiosk-like atmosphere by designing the walls of the store space facing the street by 'tracing' the scale and proportions of the elements that make up a typical 'kiosk'. This thinking was extended to VMD and sign design. For example, in VMD, industrial products similar in size to those generally displayed in kiosks were displayed. And in the sign design, the No Trespassing sign fitting to separate the store from the gallery was made of transparent natural stone and vinyl rope in the form of ‘Tomeishi’ which is used in Japanese gardens, to match the interior design. In a highly commercial site, the project focused on visually communicating the client's activities and used the tracing method to set up the space.
Space of image - In interior design, particularly in small-scale commercial applications, 'section' as a design tool is often forbidden. Strange as it may sound, it was felt that it was difficult to consider the issue of 'space' in commercial spaces. However, this was wrong. This is the conclusion of this text. In the category of interior design, the key to filling a small, limited area with the necessary functions is the planning of the plan. And there is almost no logical path to the finishes, or so-called 'what color, texture and form should be applied to the walls, floors and ceilings'. Therefore, the choice and evaluation are left to the sensory judgment of the client and designer.
In 'Tracing', I decided not to fight against the structure of "free finishing on a foundation of plan", but to try replacing "free finishing" with "methodical finishing". We thought that this would allow us to find a way to design a 'finish' without a logical path. This time, the method was to "trace the reference provided by the client, limiting it to its dimensions and style". In doing so, a series of quotations limited to the dimensions and style, down to the details and props, resulted, resulting in a phenomenon where even the first-time passer-by could easily imagine the kiosk as a reference, even though it was disjointed and distant from what had been presented. I realized that the design of the 'methodical finishing' was a matter of considering the 'image' in the space. The 'image' is highly spatial and sequential in that it engages the imagination of the recipient and creates an experience within the individual. I discovered that there is a visual space of images that is different from the physical space of sections.
