Vintage clothing store – BANKARA – in Saitama, Japan by studio201architects

Article source: studio201architects

This project is about renewing a wooden single floor house from the 1940s into a vintage clothing store.

This takes place in a place 5min from the Omiya Station in Saitama city, Saitama Prefecture.

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

• Architects: studio201architects
• Project: Vintage clothing store -BANKARA- 
• Location: 2-124, Miyacho, Omiya-ku Saitama-shi, Saitama, Japan 
• Photography: Kenta Hasegawa / OFP
• Construction: Asanuma builders
• Floor area: 93.70m2
• Completion: 06/2014

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Being originally a habitation, the building has a street on the south side and a garden on the north face. There are a multitude of openings that provide the interior with a constant natural light.

Another particularity is the attic under the roof. This now rarely found “bark roofing” truly brings us back in time to the 1940s.

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

For this project featuring a unique natural light, I wanted to embellish the positive aspect of a wooden living house form the 1940s and combine the wooden construction with the atmosphere of the vintage clothing to create a unique space.

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

To ensure further natural light, an opening between floors was made so day lighting would come in from the south facing windows of the second floor. By this blow-by, a 3m maple was planted to be the symbol tree; furthermore I planted trees on various places to become eye points.

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Plywood panels are installed between pillars to provide lines of flow inside the store as well as fulfilling the roles of quake resisting walls.

To stay with the interior concept, all the furniture is purchased from vintage shops.

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

The surrounding walls inside the store were painted white to accentuated and valorize the wooden structures, the trees as well as the displays and clothes.

The light coming in and changing from seasons to seasons, the evolving trees, the displayed clothes, all of those ever-changing factors provide the clients with a sense of freshness at each visit.

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

That space made from natural light, wooden house from the 1940s, trees and vintage clothing, all contributes to show the various expressions coming from changing seasons and time.

I aimed to make a space featuring the charm of the ordinary by incorporating the element of the flow of time into the interior.

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © Kenta Hasegawa / OFP

Image Courtesy © studio201architects

Image Courtesy © studio201architects

Tags: Japan, Saitama

Category: STORE

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