Today I want to share another design company. This time we are focusing on interior design. I would like to introduce to everybody, Wonderwall Inc.
Wonderwall Inc. is spearheaded by Masamichi Katayama. It’s the same company that’s responsible for the A Bathing Ape retail store Busy Work Shop in Japan, London, New York and Hong Kong. In fact, Nigo and Bape was one of their first customers and some could say, their claim to fame.
They have since then gone on to design various retail stores as well as restaurants. From APC to the Tokyo Curry House, Wonderwall Inc’s design concepts is all about breaking barriers while still taking in consideration everything that is important in any store. The Japanese are known for their focus on detail, it’s the same ideals for Wonderwall. From the type of lighting, materials, proportions as well as the actual experience of the store, all these elements come into play in their designs.
I felt it was only appropriate that the first masterpiece I should present is none other than the atelier of Wonderwall Inc.
Next up is one of the first projects of Wonderwall Inc.. The Busy Work Shop in Harajuku, it was originally built during 1998, but it has been recently renovated.
BUSY WORK SHOP HARAJUKU
For the Bape store, after discussions with Nigo, we decided to create a store that felt like a town within a building with an American diner flair. However, for the top floor, a sense of playfulness was added with a colonial style resort inspired space.
They also worked on the offices of Ogilvy & Mathers in Japan, as well as the retail store for A.P.C. Homme in Daikanyama.
OGILVY & MATHER JAPAN
These offices are located on the 25th floor of a large office building. A great view of the Tokyo landscape is incorporated into a common space connecting each division which can be used as a lounge, with a variety of randomly placed chairs.
A.P.C. HOMME DAIKANYAMA
Creating an impression of a space that had some big changes to the interior without actually making changes was an important factor in this project. The space has been restructured while revering the fact that it was cherished for a long time, with a garden as the entrance, with different rooms and space each with it’s own scenario of the A.P.C. world.
I felt it was only apt to end with another Bape store. This time we have the Bapexclusive store in Aoyama.
BAPEXCLUSIVE AOYAMA
For this project, Katayama wanted a coexistence of two opposing ideas; minimal and maximum. The ground floor is very minimal; a very controlled space made of pure-white grids of tiles. The second floor is a maxim space surrounded by walls of sneakers and floored with carpeting made of 10 colors. For the stairway which links the two floors, a lighting system and mirrors are utilized to change colors and allow the light to spill down to the ground floor. The conveyer belt for the sneakers on the 2nd floor is enclosed in a glass cylinder. The middle of the conveyer belt is open through the ground floor that allows one to view the rotating sneakers from below via the mirrored ceiling.
Store descriptions and pictures were courtesy of the Wonderwall website. You can see more of their designs and some bonus stuff in their website.
Hope you guys enjoyed this feature, I will try to share more cool stuff in the future.
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