nana’s green tea LaLaPort TOKYO BAY
Chiba, Japan / 2015

“Nodate”

Nanaha Co., Ltd. is a company that sends the “new form of Japan” to the world through “mattcha”. They provide high quality mattcha in menus that are arranged modernly, such as mattacha latte. The space inside the shop is desired to be a “modern tearoom”, not a “Japanese style tea room”. According to the owner, it is a way of expressing their feeling to make a shop that allows the customers to enjoy the traditional Japanese culture with a modern interpretation.

This cafe faces the outside street in LaLaport TOKYO BAY, although it located in the shopping mall an appealing design as a stand-alone store was required.
Therefore I propose a new space neither indoor nor outdoor by thinking the cafe as a part of the shopping mall not by thinking an individual cafe.
Then I focused on Nodate, which is a way of tea ceremony. It is an open-air tea ceremony in which people enjoy green tea and nature in a good season for.
Actually people spread a felt carpet on the ground in order to provide the psychological border between tea space and outside. This time, however, I deliberately bring in trees to create the psychological “border” that is an essential thing for Nodate, in order to let customers experience indoor Nodate.
By arranging 70 columns that liken to trees, to be seen the paths between trees (columns) as well as forest and trees (columns) determine the people flow itself but also they are disposed at random so that each people has own discovery.
Moreover, for the sake of realization of bamboo thicket that is familiar to Japanese people, the theme of this forest is “The Tale of the bamboo Cutter”, which is a well-known Japanese tale, particularly the first chapter that “Princess Kaguya” was born from a bamboo.
I hope that everyone who comes here will enjoy their own “Nodate”.

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto

< PRESS >
Good Design Cafe vol.2, Nov. 2017 Issue
Shoten Kenchiku Jun. 2016 Issue

< AWARDS >
2015 – JCD Design Award 2015 Best 100