beautiful people by Daisuke Yamamoto / de:sign
Name of Company or Individual: Daisuke Yamamoto / de:sign
Country: Japan
Website: http://de-sign.jpn.com
Project Name: beautiful people
Project Completion Date: 11/22/2019
Project Completed City: Shibuya,Tokyo
Interior Division: Retail Shop
“Beautiful People”, a Japanese fashion atelier based in Tokyo. Since their debut at Paris fashion week, they have broadened their activities and this is their second freestanding store in Tokyo, Shibuya Parco, an iconic shopping destination leading the Japanese youth culture opened in Nov 2019.
Every day, and in every place of the world, we see new buildings and stores being built, and in every site, there are numerous construction materials used one after another. Steel is used to framework walls that protect the entire construction frame, then fireproof boards are compounded, finished with paint to give the walls and ceilings a distinctive look and texture. There is beauty in this process of construction and detail, however, simultaneously a feeling of anticipation; making something new means destroying something old, as many numerous materials are used, in the end they are also all meant to be disposed of. This cycle of “scrap and build” is becoming ever faster especially in a place like Tokyo where we are undergoing consistent rapid change.
For that reason, our idea was to put a spotlight on the materials that are usually hidden by the decorative layers of polish and use the “raw” materials as-is, fully utilizing the potential of the character it genuinely holds.
The representative material is the “LGS (Lightweight Gauge Steel)”, a well-known material normally used in the framing systems throughout the interior / exterior wall structure. By placing these LGS side by side and not on the usual scale with intervals, we created a unique expression of partitions for the fitting and stock room which are key components for a retail store. The normal 3 steps of processes (LGS, Fireproof Boards, Paint finish) were reduced to just 1, resulting in both time and cost-efficiency.
At the same time, these LGS are only screwed together, therefore, they can be easily disassembled, which means completely reusable/recyclable for its next journey. We also created fixtures from layering fireproof gypsum boards, organically combined electric wire covered in vinyl resin and a heat insulation material Styrofoam to make a stool, and displayed mannequins made from fibre-reinforced plastic. These groundwork “raw” materials are traditionally not a leading role, however, they are both beneficial for the clients as well as for the environment. Rather than decorating the space with layers of material, we are bound to destroy, our design concept is to simply use just the first layer and seek the beauty that lies beneath what we see.
