JINS Kumagaya Koizuka Store // TYRANT Inc.

Text description provided by the architects.

It is a roadside store of eyewear brand JINS located in the suburbs of Kumagaya in Saitama Prefecture, dotted with various stores including restaurants and stores selling various goods. A new store building and a parking lot for 16 bays are planned over an area of about 900 m2.

An elongated rectangular in plan, the massive looking building with its external wall finished with gray-painted red cedar siding boards stands at the eastern part of the compound about 400 mm afloat from the ground level, and the remaining area is used for parking spaces.

© TYRANT Inc.

© TYRANT Inc.

The level difference created between the building floor and the ground level by floating the building is smoothed by providing a slope. Crape myrtle in the patio is intentionally planted more toward the slope side to create a richer experience for visitors as they use the approach to enter the store.

A bright and open space is created by providing a large composite window sashing facing the patio or the front road.

© TYRANT Inc.

© TYRANT Inc.

The wall and ceiling are finished in white paint to make the interior look like a white cube of a fine art gallery. However, an attempt is made to create a commercial environment by providing “golden elements” as design twists at various parts of the interior including use of bronze plating for metallic parts of furnishings on display or partly painted downlights arranged at random to make them look like a starry night.

Although architecturally simple, the building has an overwhelming sense of presence because of elements of out-of-placement created at various parts of the building by floating the building, such as shadows formed between the lower part of the building and the ground surface or beam-like slabs remaining between the slope and the foundation by hollowing parts of the foundation slab in the patio area..

© TYRANT Inc.

© TYRANT Inc.

JINS Kumagaya Koizuka Store Gallery