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50 Norman

Schemata Architects

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Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
JURY VOTES
Multi-Brand Store
6.39
6.89
6.41
6.53
6.56
Katrina Yin
Katrina Yin Design Manager at JDS Development Group
5.75
7
6
4
5.69
Christopher Lye
Christopher Lye Principal at Woods Bagot
5
7.5
5.5
5
5.75
David Schwarz
David Schwarz Founding Partner and Creative Director at Hush
5
6.87
5
4.6
5.37
Victoria Schneyer
Victoria Schneyer Global Head of Store Design at Hugo Boss
Innovative concept for Godiva and g...
7.5
7
7
5.5
6.75
Norman-Henner Plattner
Norman-Henner Plattner Head of Store Development at The KaDeWe Group
6.64
7.3
7.45
4.86
6.56
John Lam
John Lam Co-Founder and Design Strategist at State of Culture
The design of Stage by Godiva aims...
6.07
7.03
6.36
5
6.12
Tessa Mansfield
Tessa Mansfield Chief Creative Officer at Stylus
5.5
6
5.5
4.5
5.38
David Wei
David Wei Cofounder and Design Director at Hatch Architects
3.95
5.78
4.72
5.11
4.89
Andras Klopfer
Andras Klopfer Managing Partner at BWM Retail
5
6
6
5
5.5
Agata Kurzela
Agata Kurzela Founder and Design Director at Agata Kurzela Studio
5
7
6
5
5.75
Eric Wang
Eric Wang Head of Marketing and E-Commerce APAC at Duravit
5.74
5.97
5.63
5
5.59
Gokhan Avcioglu
Gokhan Avcioglu Principal and Founder at Global Architecture Development
6
7
5.9
4.85
5.94
Lene Utbjoe
Lene Utbjoe Discipline Lead at Henning Larsen
5
6
6
5
5.5
Benjamin Iborra Wicksteed
Benjamin Iborra Wicksteed Partner and Creative Director at Mesura
5
7
6
5
5.75
Leilei Wu
Leilei Wu Partner at F.O.G. Architecture
5.5
7
6
5
5.88
Client
House Brooklyn, Cibone Brooklyn, Dashi Okume Brooklyn
Floor area
325 ㎡
Completion
2022
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Construction
Local Architects
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Sound planning

We designed a retail complex called 50 Norman in Brooklyn, New York. It is a Japanese food-themed retail complex consisting of HOUSE BROOKLYN, a Japanese French restaurant, CIBONE, featuring Japanese ceramics and other cooking utensils, and Okume, a seafood processing store established in 1871 on the Tsukiji fish market.

For this project, we had to conceive the process to minimize costs while maintaining Japanese quality of design and production overseas. And we came up with DEKASEGI, an idea to process materials that would otherwise be dismantled and discarded in Japan, reduce their volume as much as possible, ship them overboard, and then bring several craftsmen to the site to assemble and process them locally in a short time. The Japanese word, DEKASEGI, originally means a temporary work away from home or overseas, or a person who does this kind of job. Here, we became DEKASEGI workers. Used and aged wood materials in Japan often retain their original craftsmanship, joints, and other features that give them a distinctive appearance. Our design sought to make the best use of such characteristics.

50 Norman was our first DEKASEGI project, and the planning began at the height of the COVID crisis and unexpected things happened continuously. The shipping duration became longer and longer, the cost of transportation also skyrocketed. Therefore, we decided to send them by air using as little volume as possible by building crates and packing the components tightly inside them. The idea was to use the crates as display stands for the stores. However, the air shipping cost began to soar when production began in Japan. Therefore, minimizing volume using the crate was no longer relevant. Instead, we decided to break up the components into smaller pieces and insert them into the limited space in the airplane. But at that point, we could no longer change our original design, so we had to disassemble the crates and insert the pieces into the gap for transportation.

In Japan, we cannot recycle and use old wood materials for construction, even though we understand their attractive qualities. Houses constructed of the quaint materials are still being torn down and burned. For this project, we decided to use materials that would otherwise be trashed in Kyoto to make fixtures for new stores opening in New York. When completed, what was trash in Kyoto became something precious in New York.

To assemble and build them on site, we accompanied TANK, our Japanese production team. Since we have always struggled to produce the desired results in overseas projects, we experimented with a method of pre-processing materials in Japan and transporting them to the site for assembly and fabrication this time. Local contractors did the water, electrical, and architectural fixtures, while TANK worked on the interior finishes, especially the parts customers would touch. As a result, we successfully achieved the same quality in the U.S. that we could in Japan.