"Yan" by Tomoko Ikegai ikg inc.
Name of Company or Individual: Tomoko Ikegaiikg inc.
Country: Japan
Website: http://ikg.cc/
Project Name: Yan
Project Completion Date: 12/17/2018
Project Completed City: Shenzhen, China
Interior Division: Retail Shop
Photographer: Nacasa&Partners Inc. →TAKESHI NAKASA webmst@nacasa.co.jp
Design cooperation：ARTERIOR Co., Ltd. →RYO OGASAWARA https://www.arterior.jp/
Lighting：Sola Associates →KAZUHIRO KAWAMURA http://www.sola-associates.co.jp/
Graphic Design：ujidesign →YUTAKA MAEDA http://www.ujidesign.com/
“Life in the East”, New Style of Bookstore Complex
2,475 sqm bookstore complex ‘Yan’ was conceptualized with the theme of ‘Life in the East’, located in a development area of Shenzhen Bay, where hotels, residences, sports facilities, and office buildings clustered. We designed it to be a place where people feel the calm and dignified spirit of ‘Zen’ and also follow its sub-concept ‘Think borderless, Discover Yourself.’ It expresses the shop’s identity as a place for endless self-discovery. To achieve this, we designed the bookstore to be a place where you can feel the calm and dignified spirit of Zen Buddhism.
Over the past thirty years, the population of Shenzhen has exploded from 300,000 to 14,000,000 people. It is unique among Chinese cities that sixty-five percent of these residents are in their twenties and thirties, giving it powerful new energy. Furthermore, for many thousands of years, China has been making outstanding cultural contributions to Japan and the rest of the world. Recently, bookstores have been opening all over China, which on a surface level, designed beautifully and strikingly. However, we felt that, especially in this proactive city, it was essential to value China’s originality and individuality, exploring mystical images of the East in the context of globalization.
The interior, with "Zen" as its concept, is devised to make the inner space a very different world from the lavish outer space, by closing off the bookstore with a long facade of rammed-earth wall, reminiscent of layers of deep strata. The rammed-earth wall incorporates soils that vary in colour from amber to milky white. These shades form the base for the colour scheme inside the store, which was selected entirely from natural earth tones. The bookstore is the focal point, and the tenant stores have been tied in by using the same colour tones. Tile in a mock Italian travertine pattern covers the floor, expressing the idea of accumulation through marble’s visual representation of earth hardening over many long years. The gold colour of the bookshelves derives from the image of minerals within the earth, while the slender, delicate metal shelves express spirituality. By nearly eliminating the presence of these exceedingly thin shelves, the design conveys the concept of immersing oneself in a sea of books. We installed 5 custom-made original artworks matching the concept. Each piece of art has a theme to match the pattern and concept of the space and is important elements to help to express a comprehensive world view. The event area and small gathering space are for a variety of events to interact and exchange information. It was devised to include practical ways to transmit ideas and information so that customers would always have new encounters and experiences.
“Yan” is a space to encounter the fountain of wisdom and search for oneself. It is also a space to feel a part of the warm earth itself. We hope that visitors will have a quiet contemplative experience and discover a new world within.
“Life in the East”, New Style of Bookstore Complex
2,475 sqm bookstore complex ‘Yan’ was conceptualized with the theme of ‘Life in the East’, located in a development area of Shenzhen Bay, where hotels, residences, sports facilities, and office buildings clustered. We designed it to be a place where people feel the calm and dignified spirit of ‘Zen’ and also follow its sub-concept ‘Think borderless, Discover Yourself.’ It expresses the shop’s identity as a place for endless self-discovery. To achieve this, we designed the bookstore to be a place where you can feel the calm and dignified spirit of Zen Buddhism.
Over the past thirty years, the population of Shenzhen has exploded from 300,000 to 14,000,000 people. It is unique among Chinese cities that sixty-five percent of these residents are in their twenties and thirties, giving it powerful new energy. Furthermore, for many thousands of years, China has been making outstanding cultural contributions to Japan and the rest of the world. Recently, bookstores have been opening all over China, which on a surface level, designed beautifully and strikingly. However, we felt that, especially in this proactive city, it was essential to value China’s originality and individuality, exploring mystical images of the East in the context of globalization.
The interior, with "Zen" as its concept, is devised to make the inner space a very different world from the lavish outer space, by closing off the bookstore with a long facade of rammed-earth wall, reminiscent of layers of deep strata. The rammed-earth wall incorporates soils that vary in color from amber to milky white. These shades form the base for the color scheme inside the store, which was selected entirely from natural earth tones. The bookstore is the focal point, and the tenant stores have been tied in by using the same color tones. Tile in a mock Italian travertine pattern covers the floor, expressing the idea of accumulation through marble’s visual representation of earth hardening over many long years. The gold color of the bookshelves derives from the image of minerals within the earth, while the slender, delicate metal shelves express spirituality. By nearly eliminating the presence of these exceedingly thin shelves, the design conveys the concept of immersing oneself in a sea of books. We installed 5 custom-made original artworks matching the concept. Each piece of art has a theme to match the pattern and concept of the space, and is important elements to help to express a comprehensive world view. The event area and small gathering space are for a variety of events to interact and exchange information. It was devised to include practical ways to transmit ideas and information so that customers would always have new encounters and experiences.
“Yan” is a space to encounter the fountain of wisdom and search for oneself. It is also a space to feel a part of the warm earth itself. We hope that visitors will have a have a quiet contemplative experience and discover a new world within.
