NANAHA ODAKYU
Tokyo, Japan / 2009

“Suki”

Nanaha Co., Ltd. is a company that sends the “new form of Japan” to the world through “matcha”. They provide high quality matcha in menus that are arranged modernly, such as matacha 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.

Nanaha is different from “nana’s green tea” and they especially concentrate on “Slow food”and this is a flag shop of all Nanaha branches.

The cafe is located at a shopping mall, a part of Odakyu department store with lots of high brand stores, and thus we were asked to target upper class customers with a high quality design.

Tea room was also called ‘sukiya’ (Place with a couple of rooms) in history. Originally ‘suki’ had two meanings, “like” as a verb, and “gap” as a noun, and the ‘suki’ in ‘sukiya’ is the phonetic equivalent.
Some say the gap in tea room is intentional created as an attempt to release the tension among the guests.
In Japanese culture, ‘omotenashi’ (hospitality) can provide a sense of relief and relaxation to the guests, which is present both in the ancient tea room and in this shop. I have adapted ‘suki’ (gap) as the ‘aperture’ in space, and used ambient light through apertures to surround the guests, in order to relax them.
In addition, to bridge the ‘gap’ between the past and the present day, I made ‘tatefuda’ tea room, a tatami room where you can go in with your shoes and sit on chairs. 

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto

< PRESS >
Shoten Kenchiku Feb. 2010 Issue
e-housing (South Korea) Jul. 2009 Issue

< AWARDS >
2009 – DDA Award 2009 – WINNER