Architect：DDAA / DDAA LAB

Location：Taito, Tokyo, Japan; | ;

Project Year：2021

Category：Offices;Showrooms

This project is to renovate an entire concrete building near Kuramae Station into a showroom and office for IaicoS, which operates Hender Scheme and Polyploid.

There are a few simple, specific rules for this space. The first is to use raw-edged materials as they are without significant edge treatment except for deburring. The second is to use the colors of materials as they are as much as possible without color matching. The third is to treat opposites, such as craft/industrial, front/back, artificial/natural, and cheap/luxurious as equally as possible.

The first two, "raw-edged" and "material color," are DDAA's interpretation of the characteristics of Hender Scheme's vegetable-tanned leather, and the third is a rule inspired by their "way of making" that we feel in their creation. We wanted to create in a way that resonates with Hender Scheme's creation, which are familiar everyday products such as ordinary boxes, envelopes, and simple packaging designed using leather through careful techniques. This is not only because of the rules we set, but also because we sympathize with the way they make and the attitude they take.

This is why we decided to leave the bare walls as they are as much as possible. Shelves and partitions around the walls are made of raw-edged gray poly lumber to accentuate the edges. One of the glass partitions separating the office and meeting room is a mirror, and the gray surface visible from the office is the back of the mirror used as a finish. Since the mirror and glass are the same thickness, raw edges of both materials were joined without seals along the edges like glass.