‘la cienega and cafe’ is located in the center of matsumoto, a city in nagano prefecture, japan. the existing building was designed in 1998 by the architect hideoyasui to house a fashion boutique. more recently the client requested designs for furniture and the interior of a new cafe situated in the loft, with a provision for displaying lots of small objects and accessories.
‘patapata’ wall-display furniture was designed like outdoor playground equipment for children. ‘patapata’ (w: 6,000mm, h: 1,400mm) comprises 84 doors, each of which is an easily detachable element of a simple structure or can be folded out to obtain a display unit. ‘patapata’ is onomatopoeia for the opening-and-closing sounds. shop staff are easily able to create and change display arrangements by exploiting these features of ‘patapata’.
‘wakuwaku’ units (with shelves, or used as a simple clothes hanger) are made of steel pipe plus plywood as required. ‘wakuwaku’ expresses a feeling of fun, although ‘waku' simply means ‘frame’ in Japanese. we gave this elegant frame it a tense atmosphere, while the installation of floating shelves lightens its overall feeling and appearance. another pipe-made clothes hanger attached along the concrete stair leads customers downstairs to the shop’s clothing section.
at the center of the building, a tree formerly located in the garden of the client’s house is illuminated by a skylight, with additional surrounding pendant lights.
Material Used :
1. Pata pata（display furniture） - basswood plywood - (w: 6,000mm, h: 1,400mm)
2. waku waku（display furniture）- steel,basswood plywood - (w: 800mm, h: 1,700mm)
