Meet Tree Store / Naruse Inokuma Architects

closed

As a one-story building with a ceiling height of 5.3m, located in a first-rate district in Ginza, the shop is in an extremely favorable environment. In this environment, we designed a huge roof made of lumber. Above the deep green space of the store — a green based on the image of Nakatsugawa’shinokiforest — we floated two vaults made of 105mm x 105mmhinokiwood. Exuding both the strength and power of wood as well as the unique sensation of floating, these vaults command a large presence within the cityscape.Text description provided by the architects.This design was for a store in Ginza, newly opened by the sweets and cosmetics brand Meet Tree. This brand is managed by a lumber company in Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture.The upstream area of the Kiso River, including Nakatsugawa, boasts one of the topmost productions ofhinokicypress in all of Japan. Among thehinokiproduced, naturalhinokiis called Kiso hinoki and is even used in the rebuilding (sengu) of the Ise Shrine every 20 years. The lumber company that manages Meet Tree is one of the long-standing companies that have continued the lumber business in this area for over a century. They planned this new shop as a place where they could introduce new products developed from thehinokithat they have carefully protected over the years and, by extension, also familiarize more people with the wonders of domestichinoki.Composition of the Vaults -The two wooden vaults are both made from Nakatsugawahinoki– the brand’s roots. The 105mm x 105mmhinokiwood pieces are slightly shaved to create trapezoidal shapes, which are then fixed next to one another with long screws to create a large, arching vault. These vaults are treated as beams, supported by delicate steel columns and the walls in the back.Each vault loosely defines the sweets and cosmetics areas, respectively. In this forest that has popped up in the middle of Ginza, you will be met with sweets and cosmetics crafted carefully from the rich bounty of the trees.