NAKAGAMI Nakameguro Store / Suppose Design Office
NAKAGAMI Nakameguro Store / Suppose Design Office
Text description provided by the architects. No facade. In a time when the world and its values are changing drastically due to the spread of coronas, we must question the common sense of conventional store creation, which starts with “internalizing the space,” and rethink the treatment of the “outside” by drawing a new starting line. We believe that we need to rethink the starting line for the “outside. In order to solve the three issues of “economy,” “timelessness,” and “brand expression,” the project began with a search for a “borderline between the outside and the inside” based on the premise of a store without a facade.
The NAKAGAMI store is both a sales floor and a press room. In order for the shop to function as a device for communicating the brand’s worldview, we considered how to maximize the effect with minimal operation on a site with a tenant area of 60 m2. The hint came from the structure of the shopping street facing the arcade, which becomes a store as soon as the shutters are opened. However, in an apparel store, the way products are displayed and handled is more important than in a grocery store environment where customers can easily pick up products.
Therefore, a large 3m x 7m showcase for clothing was built and placed at an angle set back from the exterior wall line to create a room for merchandise and three spaces under the eaves like an alley. The frame of the showcase is composed of wiring members used behind the scenes as construction materials, and the combination of brown polycarbonate corrugated sheets and navy carpet creates a high-contrast situation with cheap materials, but with delicate details and chic colors, and the combination of different materials creates the elements embody the world view of the brand, which has a perspective of discomfort and modern re-construction of traditional items.
The gap between the shop and the town, created by blurring the boundaries, became a place where people could connect with each other through events other than products, such as music and coffee. It became a blank space to communicate NAKAGAMI’s stance along with the clothes. The shop was designed to allow room for change by not making everything, and to blend in with the city as the various expressions of the shop became the ever-changing landscape of the city. We imagined such a scene in the design.
