Tokyo Design Week: here's another project from Torafu architects; this time their Nike Air Force 1 shoestore in Harajuku, Tokyo.
Koichi Suzono and Shinya Kamuro of Torafu explain the project:
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This is an interior and exterior design project for Nike Air Force 1 store, which is open for only one year, on the back street of Harajuku. The new products which appear month after month will all be displayed even after the sales period is over. The number of products is only a few in the first month, but will be no less than about 300 one year later. We intended the customers to be able to visually enjoy the process by which the number of the products increases.
The shoes are displayed in circles, with all of them facing the same direction, so that they look like a migratory school of fish swimming in the tank of an aquarium. And this "school of shoes" changes its appearance over the course of the year, gaining shoes of different colours.
We proposed to display only white Air Force 1's at first, and add the new model of a different colour every time it is released. To achieve this, we designed the double-glass showcase, which makes the shoes look as if they are swimming in a circular cylinder
On the second floor is a lounge where you can design original Air Force 1 (reservations required). Looking down on the showcase from the top of the double height structure, a school of Air Force 1's appears to be swimming around under the water-like surface of the blue carpet spread on the second floor.
High transmittance glass bracket shelves to put the shoes on are jointed with photobond, which hardens under ultraviolet rays. One of the two inner side sheets of the glass can be slid in order to change the products on display.
On the wall, we used cemented excelsior board, which is painted in white to placard seasonal items to promote sales such as posters. Its rough texture bears harsh use, and contrasts with the plain surface of the glass showcase.
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Posted by Rose Etherington