Starbucks’ Kengo Kuma Designed Reserve Roastery Opens in Tokyo
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The Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has teamed up with Starbucks on a coffee house featuring origami-like ceilings and trails of cherry blossoms, designed to offer customers a more theatrical experience. The Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Tokyo is one of onStarbucks’ Kengo Kuma Designed Reserve Roastery Opens in Tokyo
The Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has teamed up with Starbucks on a coffee house featuring origami-like ceilings and trails of cherry blossoms, designed to offer customers a more theatrical experience. The Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Tokyo is one of only five in the world, along with branches in Seattle, Shanghai, Milan, and New York. Unlike the brand’s typical coffee shops, these large-scale roasteries offer a premium experience, with opportunities to sample rare caffeinated beverages. According to the Starbucks website, the new outpost is intended to refer to Japan’s landscape and traditional crafts. Kengo Kuma designed the four-story building, while Liz Muller, chief design officer at Starbucks, was responsible for the interior fit-out. Describing the design of the new store, Starbucks website states that a 55-ft copper coffee-bean cask anchors the entrance of the venue, extending upward through the building’s four floors. It is adorned with handcrafted cherry blossom details, mimicking those that appear along the nearby Meguro River every spring. The cylindrical volume has a mottled surface created by a process called tsuchime, which sees a small hammer create a pattern of indentations. Lightwoods traditionally used in the Japanese architecture have been used for furnishings, and the timber-tiled ceiling is lined with triangular blocks of striped wood, intended to recall the appearance of origami-folded paper. Timber fins jut out from the building’s facade to accommodate balcony terraces. The floors and walls of the space are slate grey. The layout of the ground floor is open-plan, to “draw customers into an immersive experience.” Along with areas filled with dining tables and chairs, there is also a small retail area selling Starbucks merchandise and a bakery serving Italian treats like focaccia and cornetti. The first floor is dedicated to Japanese teas, while the second floor plays host to a cocktail bar, Arriviamo. The fourth floor contains a sizeable lounge named Amu – the Japanese term for “knit together” – which can be used for community events and talks. Kuma was an obvious choice for the first Starbucks branch in Japan, as the architect has previously worked with the brand on other Starbucks branches. Last year, he stacked 29 shipping containers to create a ‘drive in’ Starbucks in Taiwan. Kengo Kuma is a Tokyo based architect. He received his Master’s Degree in Architecture from the University of Tokyo, before establishing Kengo Kuma & Associates in 1990. Since then, the firm has designed architectural works in over 20 countries and received prestigious awards, including the Architectural Institute of Japan Award, the Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award (Finland), and the International Stone Architecture Award (Italy), among others. It aims to design architecture, which naturally merges with its cultural and environmental surroundings, proposing gentle, human-scaled buildings. https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more