FAN JAPAN SHOP

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Photo © Joshua Lieberman

Retail + Stores

Architects: Yamazaki Kentaro Design Workshop

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Year: 2015

This shop sells traditional Japanese crafts in a commercialcomplex in Kuala Lumpur. When viewed from the outside passage, the sales floor fixtures are illuminated with spot lighting to create a sharp contrast between light and shadow.

Towards the rear, there is a café separated from the sales floor by a grid screen. The rearmost wall behind the café bar is covered in reflective tin leaf and is uniformly illuminated.

When viewed from outside, the screen creates a silhouette resembling a Japanese shoji door caught the light, giving the space a sense of depth.

As these elements come together, a uniquely Japanese light and shadow aesthetic exemplified in Kyoto’s Katsura Imperial Villa is recreated within the context of a commercial facility.

The tin leaf wall covering, meticulously handmade by Japanese craftsmen, imparts the high degree of Japanese spatial expression to the local workers who applied it.