Makoto Yamaguchi Design Inc.

Kilico

Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki

KILICO

Makoto Yamaguchi Design

ARCHITECTS
Makoto Yamaguchi Design

LIGHTING DESIGN
Luxie, Mayumi Kondo

PHOTOGRAPHS
Ken'ichi Suzuki

AREA
125.0 m²

YEAR
2009

LOCATION
Shibuya, Japan

CATEGORY
Services, Interiors Architecture

Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki
Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki

Located in Daikanyama, one of Tokyo's trendiest areas, 'kilico.' is a hair salon housed in an attractive space in the basement of a commercial building with a skylight built in 1983 that has seen many prior tenants. When we first went to view the site, it was in an extremely stripped down state. 

Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki
Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki

Even though the interior layout had basically remained the same, there were many traces left behind by previous occupants on the floor and walls a flat mortar wall next to an unfinished concrete block wall, and a whole host of dents and depressions of various sizes in the coarse concrete floor.

We decided to leave these textural details intact and incorporate them into the design for the new salon, so we painted the walls over in white and filled the depressions of various sizes with mortar.

Looking at the white wall that extends downwards from the ceiling until the floor, for example, you can see an entire gradient of different textures. The surface of a concrete block gradually changes into

Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki
Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki
Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki

A surface riddled with holes that probably appeared when it was dismantled, which then segues into a panel with a completely flat and even finish, ending up as a fairly flat surface at the very bottom.

After we had filled the depressions in the floor with mortar in order to make it flat, a map-like pattern emerged - what we call a "time map".

The design of 'kilico.' is based on these vestiges of past "time" - traces of previous incarnations of this building that have been given a new lease of life.

Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki
Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki
Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki
Kilico
© Ken'ichi Suzuki


Kilico
Floor Plan

Makoto Yamaguchi Design Inc.
T +81 3 64360371 F +81 3 64360372
Makoto Yamaguchi Design Inc.
2-8-17-1F, Minamiazabu, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 106-0047, Japan