Sunset-hued counter welcomes customers at Tokyo cheese tart shop by Yota Kakuda
Japanese designer Yota Kakuda has combined industrial and citrus tones in his interior design for Bake Kitasenju, a cheese tart shop in Tokyo (+ slideshow).
The grey shopfront has a transparent acrylic front counter coloured in a gradient of bright pink, orange, yellow and lime.
The Kitasenju store is Kakuda's latest for the Bake chain, following an outpost in the northern Japanese city of Sendai.
That store's interior was also designed to look factory-like, with custom grey aluminium tiles used to cover the entire space.
But for the Kitasenju shop, the cool interior is pierced by a burst of sunset colours in the acrylic countertop. Kakuda describes this use of coloured acrylic as being inspired by Shiro Kuramata, the Japanese creator of the Flower Vase.
As in Kuramata's design, bright colours gradually blend into clear acrylic. The whole block-like counter is transparent, offering a tinted view into the shop.
Kakuda used a pared-back palette elsewhere in the store. It had "to be quiet in order to accentuate the counter", he said.
The floor is mortar, and the walls are plaster with a mortar effect. An oven and a floating display of white serving boxes feature on the back wall.
A former student of London's Royal College of Art, Kakuda has previously designed for Ron Arad and Muji. He established his own Tokyo-based studio in 2011.
The designer's previous projects include wooden furniture that slots together without screws or nails, and a collection of storage and display units for French brand Ligne Roset.
Photography is by Atsushi Nakamichi/Nacasa & Partners.