AR Awards for Emerging Architecture

 Honourable mention
NAOTO YAMAKUMA/KT ARCHITECTS
Shop
Tokyo, Japan
December 2006
On a 90-degree corner plot, set beneath a rough concrete, unadorned five-storey car park, Naoto Yamakuma/kt architects have inserted this ingeniously designed flower shop. In response to the two-dimensional thinness of flashy billboard architecture, while recognising the necessity to compete with it, this was built as a hybrid showcase/shop-front.
Suspended from the unfinished concrete soffit, an L-shaped steel and glass box extends out and protrudes onto each of the two streets, attracting passing trade from both directions. While inaccessible, this light box gives the shop its necessary prominence within an environment that is a carnival in neon. Beneath the steel insertion, space is given over for a more conventional and accessible display area and checkout counter. Storage and preparation space is provided more discretely in a backyard. R. G.

Architect
Naoto Yamakuma/kt architects, Ashiya
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