Last week started to get a bit shoddy as my health condition deteriorated. A mix of stress and exhaustion morphed into a sinus infection towards the end of the week. I wanted to write about this interesting project but I’m still not feeling like myself so I’m going to slack-off and provide you with text lifted directly from the architect’s website.

But allow me to provide a preface: The Nakagawa Project was a joint effort between Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects and Mizuno Manabu of Good Design Company. A Machiya is essentially a traditional Japanese a store. The term is used to describe a structure that is characterized by a tiny storefront entry followed by an expansive indoor cavity. It’s also typical for the store-owner’s residence to be included either on the second floor or towards the back of the store.

When creating this project, the 2 designers envisioned what they refer to as “Future Machiya.” The 6 different storefronts are, at first, seemingly stand-alone structures. However, once you enter you realize that they are all connected by a sprawling single space.

These are plans for an office building for a Nara wholesale store, Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten. While the company’s operations for handing tea ceremony and hemp goods are housed in separate buildings, it was decided that they would be integrated as a new facility.  Such constraints as the need for a single-story structure with a parking lot, the focus of design was to provide as much area as possible for spaces without fixed usage, This is because I believe that these ostensibly wasted spaces alone provide people with what is most useful for a company dealing in “richness in time and space”

Related:
Nowhere But Hayama | Yasutaka Yoshimura
Nowhere But Sajima | Yasutaka Yoshimura