Tato Architects / Yo Shimada

Art Candy Shop – PAPABUBBLE Lucua2

Location / Lucua 2F, 3-1-3, Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan

Design

Design
Tato Architects/Yo Shimada
Team / Yo Shimada, Takeshi Oka

Construction

&S co.,ltd

Structure

Main Structure, Steel flame

Scale

Site Area 22.2㎡

Total cost 6.6 million yen

Redesign of PAPABUBBLE Lucua, a store mainly dealing with art candies.
Located next to Osaka Station and surrounded by various commercial facilities, the shop is in a place where people come and go from all directions.
Our previous store design were developed by stacking parallelogram shaped fixtures made in perforated metal.
The perforated metal is reminiscent of the structure of melting candy and allowed for easy attachment and movement of display hooks, permitting the products to be presented in several patterns and styles.

The redesign was initially started as an update proposal, by changing the colors and arrangement of the parallelogram modules.
However, in response to the client´s wish of displaying showpieces and other special products more open and freely, we decided to rethink the design.

In order to minimize the period of closure to only three days during construction, we chose to design the space with movable box-shaped fixtures.

Inheriting the iconic perforated metal from the previous design, the idea was to create depth in the extremely shallow space of the store, by arranging the perforated metal triangular shapes mainly along the walls.
The triangular shape of the perforated metal plates works in favor of the structure as the hypotenuse of the triangles works as braces for the structure, supporting the top steel frame grid connecting everything, resulting in a light and simple look.
The overlapping colors of the perforated metal and the expressions created by the moiré pattern change depending on movement and the viewing direction.
The intention is to amuse and attract the eyes of people passing by from various directions.
By creating and stacking perforated plywood boxes and brass framed glass cases, we designed the movable fixtures.

The redesign uses fewer strong colors compared to the previous design, however with the addition of materials such as plywood, glass and brass, the store gives off both a casual and luxurious feel.