AMAHARE

“Spacious Presentations” “A way of living that helps you thoroughly relax on both rainy days and sunny days”. With this as the concept, the store sells tableware and goods from all over Japan selected from categories, such as items for food, tea and drinks. The first thing we envisaged was the “presentation” of hospitality. We think the way things are formally placed, such as tableware accompanying food served on plain wooden trays, creates a setting where you can communicate without words. By utilizing the image of spacious presentation on wooden trays, we thought the concept of “AMAHARE” could be embodied. The lattice frames where the wooden trays are mounted were made thin enough not to intrude and by making the edges of the trays the same size a light and delicate impression was created. A feeling of caring and reverence was conveyed. The inner ceiling of the building which was built in the 70’s still had wooden fiberboards as a base, so we reused those as a construction material. By cutting out the walls to give an impression of a Japanese alcove, “Tokonoma”, we created a background for the wooden tray presentation. From the upper parts of the walls to the ceiling, we created a feeling of hazy skies, as if it is both inside and outside at the same time, by gradually switching from gray to dark gray. We think that for street front stores like this, how you interpret the conditions such as location and construction situation varies, and depends on whether you can rely on someone else. The store is located in the middle of a slope in Shirogane and the inside is one step lower than the doorway. The design accepts the conditions, such as the difference in floor level in the middle area and expansive openings with sliding doors, without making deliberate changes. We aimed for the characteristics and essence of the store to be sympathetic to the perception of nature that “AMAHARE” has.