The city of Kawagoe once prospered as a castle town during the Edo period, and was known as "Koedo" (small Edo). There are still many buildings built in the traditional architectural style called "kurazukuri." The client took possession of one of the traditional warehouses called "kura" and relocated it to Nihonbashi, which was the starting point of the Five Routes or "Gokaido" and a key point for transportation and logistics during the same period. Originally, the warehouse would have been towed away and moved to the new location, but it was not possible because the area around the site is designated as the fire protection district. Instead, we built a new steel structure to cover the frame of the warehouse, and reassembled the wooden framework of the warehouse inside it. Aesthetically, the interweaving of the old and the new creates a calm atmosphere, while serving as an effective backdrop for the products at the same time. However, the wooden framework, even though it looks beautiful, had no function, and we were concerned that it might end up looking like a theater prop, or an exhibit in a museum. So, we thought of a way to give some kind of function to the wooden framework. After the wooden framework was built, we happened to find a makeshift cleaning tool holder at the site, which was built by one of the carpenters using existing holes of "nuki" joinery (similar to mortise and tenon joinery) in the columns. It was the type of furniture we recently coined "staff furniture" at the office. This finding inspired us to think of ways to use the same holes to support display shelves, hangers, mirrors, lights among other items needed in the store. Since there are many holes in the columns, the height of shelves can be adjusted freely. In this way, we brought the wooden framework back to life by giving it meaningful functions again, and completed the relocation.
T-House New Balance
Jo Nagasaka Schemata Architects & Ondesign Partners
Silver
Silver

1 / 10

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I Love this building and the way th...
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8
8
8
8

Jasper Blüm
Senior Designer
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7
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William Barrington-Binns
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Corien Pompe
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love the combination of structure,...
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Anastasia Karandinou
Architect, Senior Lecturer
at University of East London
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8
9
8
8
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at BloomDesign
8
7
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7.5

Bret Recor
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at Box Clever
8
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Joanna van der Linden
Global Retail Identity & Design Manager
at Nestlé Nespresso
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Cofounder and Creative Director
at BloomDesign
8
8
8
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Johnny Chiu
Founder
at J.C. Architecture
7
6
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Richard Parr
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at Richard Parr Associates
7
8
7
5
6.75

Stefano Giussani
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at Lissoni New York
7
6
6
5
6

Rosie Morley
Principal
at Fender Katsalidis
Highly tactile with a true sense of...
8
8
8
8
8

Jelle Sapulete
Design Director
at Adidas
“Truly love a perfect marriage of t...
8
8
9
8
8.25

Matteo Renna
Founder
at matteorenna | studio
7
7
8
7
7.25

Agata Pilip
Senior professional brand creative retail store design
at Nike
The use of the wooden structure is...
9
8
7
8
8

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8
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7
8
Location
Client
New Balance Japan and Yasuda Real Estate
Floor area
123 ㎡
Completion
2020
Architect
Construction for architecture / Interior
Construction for reconstructed of Old Japanese Warehouse
Lighting
Photograph
Photograph
Kazunori Iwata
Project team from Schemata Architects
Ayami Uchima, Ou Ueno
Project team from ondesign Partners
Yasutaka Onishi
Client
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