Tempt

The fashion boutique vanish into the night.

Tempt is a fashion boutique located in Toyama city in Japan.The store’s location is out in the middle of nowhere, within the countryside region of Toyama pref. There are no buildings, street lights or traffic signals near by. When the sunrises a black box appears and shows an awareness of a presence in the field. From the the other side, the store disappears into the darkness gradually, as the sunsets and night time begins.

The design concept was to show contrast between opposites: such as black and white, inside and outside, day and night, sparseness and density (regardless of the presence or absence of something); and to use the space in the middle as a way of showing the experience between the two opposite sides of the architectural design. Colourful clothes are fitted into the framed box inside another black solid box. This renders the layers of perspective and distance to items dependent on where you view them from.

To design the void space in between functional space and outside is important. It incorporates Nokishita aesthetics; emphasising corridor space between outdoor and indoor, whilst belonging to both sides, which is also taken from Japanese traditional aesthetics. At this store, changing the purpose of the space effects how customers interact and react to it. It could also be seen as a waiting room, show room that is open to the public as well as a private storage space. The design purpose for this space is to highlight the contrast with a clothes display room, and to have an objective point of view to the other side.