Blue Bottle Coffee Kyoto Kiyamachi Cafe by Jo Nagasaka / Schemata Architects

From the architect: Former Rissei Elementary School, built along Takase River in Kiyamachi, Kyoto in 1927, was fully renovated and reopened as a commercial complex comprising a hotel and shops among others. The third Blue Bottle Coffee cafe in Kyoto opened in a space near the front entrance to the hotel. In terms of color, the renovated building is basically composed of white walls in common areas and black window frames.

Considering Blue Bottle Coffee's tendency to use few colors, the basic color palette would be black and white but we felt it does not match the brand personality. We came up with an idea of adding another color to the black and white color palette, namely green taken from a range of green colors in the surroundings including leaves of cherry trees along Takase River and dark green blackboards used in the classrooms, and used green throughout the interior.

As a result, the room is enlivened by varying shades of green, and various pieces of furniture composed of materials in different shades of green resonate with the interior. In addition, we designed an island-type workshop counter with a grid-based convertible countertop and a built-in sink and drain system, which we proposed to Blue Bottle Coffee as a new type of furniture to explore new ways of their merchandise promotion.

Architect: Jo Nagasaka / Schemata Architects
Location: Kyoto, Japan
Year: 2020
Total floor area: 123.65 sqm
Project team:Tomomi Ishibashi
Photography: Takumi Ota

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