LED Back Wall Dominates Conceptual Shop For Presumably High-End Shoes In Tokyo

October 30, 2023 by Dave Haynes

This is a concept store for the URA apparel brand in a “semi-basement” back lane location in the Harajuku/Jingumae district of Tokyo, VERY minimalist in its design and dominated by a big LED back wall.

Arch Daily Reports (warning: art-speak ahead) …

The interior of the shop, which weakens the boundary between inside and outside and seems to extend the area to the residential site opposite, is a minimal space with full LED screens and contrasting masses of glass, mirrored surfaces and stone.  A mirrored ‘rectangle’ set on top of two stone blocks penetrates the room and juts out to the outside. Like conceptual art in public spaces, the irrationality and useless margins, which do not have a specific function, give the experimental shop, with its undefined product, the possibility of free use and diversion.

The products do not blend in with the tensed design considered from the reverse side, which is not unlike the brand, and the contrast between the ‘surfaces and lines’ as a background and the ‘dots’ of the products stands out.

I have no idea what most of that means, but someone does … somewhere. Maybe.

That said, it’s a cool looking store. The shoes must cost a few yen, given there’s a very small handful on display.