project : : UPI Kyoto store : : Kyoto, Japan : : 2021~2022 : : 120m² (constr) : :

program : : Outdoor goods retail, workshop space : :

credits : : Javier Villar Ruiz coPrincipal at HaCo (LEAD) (AOR) : : Saikaiengei (LAND) : : Onoff (LIG) : : Crea Planning (CONS) : :

synopsis : : As in the Omotesando shop, the space is conceived around the presence of a “landscape” that creates a natural context where the outdoor goods can be understood, tested and explained by staff demonstrations and workshops. Again the challenge was how to create a “landscape” and not a “garden”. While in UPI Omotesando this was achieved by exaggerating the separation between the greenery and the built elements through a strict confident diagonal boundary line; here in UPI Kyoto we tried exactly the opposite, that is to exaggerate the conflict between both. The existing concrete slab was partially demolished so as to insert the greenery. Such radical separation or radical conflict freed the greenery from the usual dependent relationship with the built environment, escaping from a garden-like presence : : photos by K. Tanaka : :