The japanese utensils shop as central market which introduce for rediscovering variety of local brands.

“Shoten-gai ” refers to a shopping market street, located within the centre of a town in Japan. Our Client NMS Co., Ltd.. began producing traditional fabrics 300 years ago, and over the years have gathered more and more Japanese local products which they have introduced to the marketplace through their own shops. This particular shop “Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten-gai ” is a case study, in which relocated and individual locals have built a shopping market in the centre of Tokyo. Each shelf stands represents a different brand covering a variety of districts throughout Japan. In this case, Seki reflect this method into design concept which is “Shops in the shop as market” as these brands in a shop called “Shoten-gai” The electrical signboards are essential element of “Shoten-gai”. In general individual shops on the street are unified by same characteristic signboard which categorized by area and this identify locality. Seki refrect this element into his design and ornamented on each display shelves to consolidate.

The shop was setup in the central section of a corridor space in a midtown Tokyo shopping-mall. In the same way that a city grows and develops by accumulating its people and building up the number of individual shops in one particular area, this shop was designed to reflect a growing market street, within a city central precinct. The layout includes an array of utensils, furniture displays, categorized brands of socks, handkerchiefs, and house hold products; whereas the middle shelves are multifunction display areas meant to resemble central square.

To visualized this “Shoten-gai ” as a shop, this emerging local stores extended more and more on the street and became market. He kept the factor such as floor, sealing, walls around this location as city landscape and integrate and transform into the part of his design concept.

The another story of revising Kimono store.

Otsuka-Gofukuten is a traditional Japanese dress store named Gofuku (another word for Kimono) and their aim is to return the Kimono back into everyday life again. Nowadays people tend to wear Kimonos only on special occasions, but this store challenges this preconception by promoting the wearing of Kimonos as part of a modern daily fashion routine.

Seki designed the initial flag-store in Kyoto, as well as this second branch, based within a shopping mall in the heart of Kobe city in the western region of Japan. With a design approach that reflects the corner building/partial-indoor location of the site, Seki has created a flexible space which captures the dual aesthetic and functional properties of both in and outdoors.

The uniquely designed shelves are distinguishable by a three step, high-mid-low, price display system to represent the differing tiers of Kimono. These industrial layer glass tables facilitate the easy unfolding of each Kimono as a way of presenting each characteristic fabric to the customers. The solid glass material used in the design represents the merging of different environmental themes, in which shading and reflection help to soften and graduate the contrast between soft and hard. The course materials of the display unit are designed to contrast with the softness and sophistication of the clothing fabric, and the layered shadings accentuate the varied colour schemes of the Kimono. Culturally, the way to present Gofuku is by coordinate the various layers of material, in a similar way to modern western fashion coordinate. Seki introduces this method as part of a design concept by using the motif of layering as a way of representing these fabric variations.The bold shelving at the forefront is designed to display mid-price Kimonos and also serves a function as an upright stand, and possess a dynamic facade created to hold the dividers without the need for wall stands. It was inspired by a Japanese historical element of facade called “Noren”, a semi-indivisible fabric with a divided curtain. This primary shelf conveys the theme of inside and outside merging together as one.His design approach demonstrates a flexible and sympathetic understanding of cultural spaces, in the context of their location and history, whilst also striving to make the most of a smaller, limited space, by creating a store in which customers will feel welcomed.