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Suetomi AoQ Cafe Stand

Ryohei Tanaka/ G Architects Studio

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Detal of the wall - Daisuke Shima
takeout counter - Daisuke Shima
view from main street - Daisuke Shima
Detal of the wall - Daisuke Shima

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Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
JURY VOTES
Material
7.86
8.10
8.11
6.53
7.65
Preeti Singh
Preeti Singh Brand Director at India Design ID
There is not much about sustainibil...
7.5
8
8
6
7.38
Claude Saos
Claude Saos Head of interior architecture and design at LISAA Strasbourg
Minimalist, raw, uncompromising arc...
7
8
8
8
7.75
Tanya Suvannapong
Tanya Suvannapong Design Director at Gensler
7.5
8
8.5
6
7.5
Liz Gallagher
Liz Gallagher Studio Director at March and White Design
8
6.75
8
6
7.19
Ronnie Belizaire
Ronnie Belizaire Studio Practice Leader and Principal at HKS Inc.
7.5
7.25
7.5
5
6.81
Peter Pan
Peter Pan Founder and CEO at Noa Galaxy
excellent material experimental in...
7
8
8.5
6
7.38
Ismael Abedin Ingelmo
Ismael Abedin Ingelmo Founder and Director at DXMID
Nice material exploration and appli...
8.06
8.54
7.61
7.31
7.88
Anne-Laure Pingreoun
Anne-Laure Pingreoun Founder at Alter-Projects
8
8
8.5
6
7.63
Yan Pan
Yan Pan Cofounder and Chief Architect at SpActrum
7
6
7
6
6.5
Judy Dowle
Judy Dowle Associate Design Director at Studio XAG
Small but mighty, impressive solves...
8
8.5
8.5
7
8
Andrea Zickhardt
Andrea Zickhardt Managing Director at Holzer Kobler Architekturen
Clever design of a small space. Nic...
9.5
10
9
8
9.13
Quan Huang
Quan Huang Chief Designer at WJID
7
8
7
6
7
Leendert Tange
Leendert Tange Creative Partner at Storeage-Group
Testimony to creativity inspired by...
8
8.5
8
6
7.63
Servaas Vehmeijer
Servaas Vehmeijer Partner and Managing Director at The Invisible Party
Wow....
9
9
9
8
8.75
Julia Chiaramonti
Julia Chiaramonti Founder at Julia Chiaramonti
Beautiful materials and ambiance....
8.83
8.96
8.6
6.62
8.25
Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
GRAND JURY VOTES
Shortlisted - Best Use of Material
8.78
8.66
8.78
7.70
8.48
Pepa Casado D'Amato
Pepa Casado D'Amato Trend Researcher at Futurea
9.5
8.1
8.11
8
8.43
Orlando Marques
Orlando Marques Founder and Director at OMstudio Lighting
The design is both delicate and bol...
9
10
10
9.16
9.54
Søren Pihlmann
Søren Pihlmann Founder at pihlmann architects
8.56
8.1
8.66
6.53
7.96
Nazanin Naeini
Nazanin Naeini Exhibition Designer at Guggenheim Museum
The thoughtful use of copper, allow...
9
9
9
7
8.5
Yan Zhang
Yan Zhang Cofounder at say architects
7.86
8.1
8.11
7.82
7.97

This is a coffee stand belonging to AoQ, a new brand established by SUETOMI, the renowned confectionery shop in Kyoto. The stand is on Karasuma-dori street which runs from the Kyoto train station, and is located on the ground floor of a two-story wooden building at an intersection surrounded by hotels and office buildings.

The depth of the coffee stand is only about 1 meter and is so small and modest that it can almost be missed in the busy street. Since the depth of it is so shallow, we were quickly able to decide on the floor plan. The kitchen and the resting area were installed side by side, along the street in the front.

Although the floor plan was decided upon almost automatically, we had to spend more time on what to do with the elevations. We decided to study the vertical side - regardless of the interior and exterior of the stand - and made an effort to chemically try to control the aging of the copper.

We taped copper foil on the wall, and oxidized it with soy sauce and chemicals. We did this because we wanted the facade to look like something that would be suitable for SUETOMI’s since long established confectionery shop in Kyoto, and also to give it a rusty patina color, which is reminiscent of "Suetomi blue", SUETOMI's corporate color for the past seventy years.

In fact, SUETOMI's flagship store is located just three minutes away on foot. So we wanted the whole stand to function as a signboard, 1 meter thick, with the color, leading customers to the main store from the busy street. The patina color was used in two areas: the eye-catching side facing the intersection, as well as in the resting area.

Cityscape regulations control the use of facade colors except for on natural materials. The use of the colors was permitted by the local government as it was not painted but was created by the oxidation of copper.

We adequately used soy sauce to slowly let the copper corrode, generating the reddish brown color, as well as ammonium chloride to quickly let the copper corrode, generating the patina color. Without these substances, and if the copper had only been exposed to wind and rain, it would have taken about three months to achieve this reddish brown color, and ten years to get the patina color.

When the cafe is closed, the resting area is covered with a roll screen made of a mesh sheet originally used for the temporary scaffold of a building construction.

When it is lit at night, it resembles a bamboo blind historically used by Japanese noble families, which lets you see through to the patina color on the wall. It functions as a "street lamp" for pedestrians, but also as a billboard for the store.