Blue Bottle Coffee Harajuku

Kenta Hasegawa

• Architects

Keeping Pace With the Ever-Evolving Landscape and Culture of Harajuku Through a New Passage and Creating a Slice of Sky Between the Buildings

Harajuku is a neighborhood that is continually evolving, embracing and blending diverse cultures and fashions to create its own unique landscape. The essence of Harajuku lies in its ever-changing cityscape ̶ a place where cultures and styles are constantly welcomed, mixed, and transformed into unique scenes.

photo_credit Kenta Hasegawa — Kenta Hasegawa

For the façade, a muted reflective material is used, abstractly capturing the movement of people passing by and the ever-evolving cityscape. By reflecting these changing urban scenes, the design draws the presence of Harajuku into the interior. As the façade extends inward, it evokes the feeling of a new passage being drawn into the space.

From the walls to the ceiling, layered plasterwork expresses the traces of change and the overlapping of diverse influences. The resulting gradient resembles clouds drifting across the sky.

A pale blue reflective ceiling lends a subtle hue to the plaster gradient, allowing it to diffuse throughout the space. It filters through like the slice of sky you may glimpse between the buildings of Harajuku.

Rather than offering a simple place to pause, the design seeks to create the experience of taking a moment of rest within Harajuku itself.