Curves and lines at Arts & Science's Aoyama flagship store
The new flagship store in Aoyama, Tokyo is quintessentially Arts & Science. This Japanese select store by creative director and long term resident Sonya Park, is known for its well chosen selection of goods and for crushing conventional retail constructs that we are used to.
Photography: Daici Ano
Sonya Park opened a store in 2003, shelved with “every day goods from abroad - items that were not yet so familiar with consumers in Japan”. Arts & Science was born in a quiet street of Daikanyama, where the store was fitted with a clear simple aesthetic, as well as, antiques and character pieces from Europe.
Creative director and long time resident Park was inspired to open a store as she was frustrated sourcing lifestyle products and clothing she wanted to purchase. Arts & Science, is names by the balance of finding these perfect products is both a art and a science. Park has opened 11 stores in total (including a café) in Tokyo and Kyoto and holds products made in Japan and additionally select pieces from around the world.
arts-science.com
The new flagship store in Aoyama, Tokyo is quintessentially Arts & Science. The façade of the building is extremely low key, with a windowless concrete block greeting the passer by and a cut out part of the exterior leading to a side entrance. This Japanese select store is known for its perfect selection of goods and crushes conventional retail constructs that we are used to.
arts-science.com
Despite the lack of traditional shop front window, the store manipulates natural light through a skylight made from a strip of glass rods from Germany in the ceiling and travels down a curved staircase, where the shopper is greeted by a clay black raven by sculptor Stephanie Quayle. The new flagship store plays with curves and lines, with the freedom of the ‘arts’ represented by curves and the more disciplined nature of ‘science’ represented by straight lines.
arts-science.com
The building was designed by Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects (ATTA) who have perfectly ‘expressed the image of the brand’ by using simple design ad textured shades of brown and grey to entice the visitor. To supplement the furniture ranges from the Roly-Poly dining chairs of Faye Toogood to the wood chairs of late Swedish designer Axel Einar Hjorth.
All stores are currently shut as the Japanese Government have declared a state of emergency.
For more information visit arts-science.com. For direct orders contact info@arts-science.com.