Dual Identity
T
his shop for Bao Bao Issey Miyake is located in a huge department store connected via a raised walkway to Japan’s busiest station, Shinjuku, which is used by 3.8 million passengers every day. Many of these commuters pass directly through this shop, which occupies a narrow corner site only 1.5-m-wide and 9-m-long, as it provides a short cut to an escalator. Turning this disadvantage into an advantage, MOMENT designed a bold, eye-catching wall that emphasises the length of the site, exploiting the fact that so many people are walking through. This distinctive feature is intended to inspire these passers-by to stop and sit on a large, white, high-backed bench in the middle of the store, and browse the goods on display. This bench also serves as a partition, separating the store from a neighbouring shop, thus giving its interior an air of exclusivity. The surface of the main wall adopts a similar pattern to that of Bao Bao Issey Miyake’s bags, with a multitude of small triangles scattered across its black-and-white, two-tone background in a seductive rhythm. It is designed to present two distinct monochrome characters – a black-to-white gradation when seen from one side of the passage, and a white-to-black gradation when seen from the other. This device ensures that the surface will give a totally different visual impression depending on where the viewer is standing, while products will also have a very different impact depending on their placement against the wall. This spatial capacity augments the wall’s status as an object, or even as a huge product, and expresses MOMENT’s design philosophy, in which space, elements and fixtures all form a harmonious whole, rather than being treated as separate components. The design of the Shinjuku store is impressive thanks to its reliance on analogue techniques to appeal to the user’s senses rather than digital ones. ‘When effective visual methods are used, the scale of a store is less important,’ MOMENT explain, ‘and here, the design’s restraint is simple yet striking, ensuring a functional and appealing result.’
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