nana’s green tea NANBA PARKS
Osaka, Japan / 2010

“Ranma”

Nanaha Corporation is a company that introduces “a new form of Japan” to the world through “matcha” (powdered green tea). They arrange high grade matchas in modern style and provide them as a menu such as matcha latte.  And they intend to make the space into a “contemporary style tea room”, not a “Japanese style tea room”.

This time I created a contemporary “ranma”. Ranma is a space between the ceiling and kamoi (a narrow piece of wood that passes over the sliding doors and around an entire Japanese room).  It is usually used for a lightening space or air ventilation. I have made an “empty” space in where the ranma is supposed to be. By irradiating upper part of a partition through that “empty ranma”, a “skiagram ranma” is created and lights the picture on the ceiling.

The spirit of tea comes out of “emptiness” and I hope the customers are able to feel that spirit through my design.

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto