Comfort Stand

Kozo Takayama

• Interior Designers

Located on the ground floor of a shared office building “CIRCLES” by Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., a coffee stand “Comfort Stand” opened in Shiodome, Tokyo in October 2019.

During the design process, in order to embody a concept of “a circle of people, an office connected with a city”, I focused on two things in particular. One is for a place to become a friendly neighbour for those working in the building and the other is to create a vague boundary between the building and city. With these in mind, I proceeded with the design with “comfort” as a keyword.

“Comfort” is not just about a literal meaning of coziness but I believe it also is linked to nostalgia - something that brings you a peaceful, calm state of mind. In Japan, a lot of people most likely think of “Kissaten” or old fashioned Japanese style coffee shops when they hear words nostalgia and coffee together, but I paid attention to the fact that coffee was initially brought to Japan from overseas and the “Kissaten” culture was originally inspired by coffee shops in Europe.

The key of the design here was to reflect both nostalgic and new elements and it was achieved by using authentic materials such as brass, marble stone and walnut wood which contributed to giving a more of a traditional, European kind of look, whilst adding a hint of Japanese details to give a modern feel to the design at the same time.