This is a project of a coffee stand at Ginza 2 chome. The place is in a business district where many office workers walking on the streets in their formal suits. A tense atmosphere could be felt in this area. We have made a “persona” as 36-year-old man working for a large advertising company, and planned to create a refreshing space where he could relax and enjoy a high quality cup of coffee with great customer service.
We have created a simply designed space with the spirituality and the sense of beauty of Japanese culture. Coffee stand came from the Western culture, but we have tried to re-design it in a Japanese way. We serve Onigiri (rice balls) instead of sandwiches, and also Mitarashi-dango which is a Japanese dessert of dumplings coated with a soy-and-sugar syrup in addition to high quality coffee and Japanese tea.
We have selected Japanese mud-plastered wall to express the beauty of the simplicity which is a Japanese sense of beauty. The natural wall that breathe has the unique atmosphere that the plastic or chemical walls don’t have.
We have designed the trach box as a Japanese paper lantern using the hand-made rice paper. We have dropped a little bit of coffee onto the paper so that the aroma of coffee would spread inside the shop. The beautiful, gentle lighting comes through the rice paper.
We have put a symbolic “Bonsai” at the center of the counter and hid every equipment and furniture as much as possible so that the “Bonsai” attracts people’s attention.
We hope this place would be a part of people’s lives but also a place to forget their daily lives.
*BONGEN=BON(“Bon”sai) +GEN(源: origin)
