This is a renovation project of a store installed in the corner of a rice cracker factory, which is located in a section of the old town that contains well-preserved old streets and houses. The factory uses only domestic and natural ingredients in its crackers.
With the store located in the corner of a handmade rice cracker factory, the renovation had a few requirements—customers had to be able to see someone baking rice crackers in the factory, and the store had to be able to display about 20 kinds of rice crackers and store a large quantity of products.
Because of space limitations, an entire wall parallel to the road was designed to be covered with pullout shelves which could be used for either storage or display.
Some of the shelves have no backboard. This allows the store to pull out drawers, creating windows and making it possible for someone on the street to watch someone working in the factory.
In addition, a small window near the store's main entrance allows customers to watch crackers baking while they browse. Watching workflow in the factory from the store gives customers a hint to imagine what is going behind the store and to maximize advantages as a store being located in the corner of a factory.
In order to give a maximized feeling of spaciousness, the ceiling height is the same as the length of the room—2,500 mm. Furthermore, the wall with the pullout shelves is divided into small segments, giving the impression of a larger space.
For the interior design of the store, materials and colors were purposefully selected to be simple and minimalist. To minimize the contrast between the factory and the store, mortar was used for the store's floor surface. The exterior of the store uses the color white extensively in order to bring out the store, especially in a traditional downtown background.
