Combined Café and Flower Shop in Japan by Fathom

In designing a combined café and flower shop for an agricultural business, the Japanese architectural practice Fathom took inspiration from neighbouring buildings and their use.

The café-cum-flower shop named Tutiru is located on a country road and as such is part of an area of large buildings surrounded by fields. The respective combination of barns and greenhouses for commercial chrysanthemum cultivation is expressed as staged everyday poesy in the café's design.

Conversion

To this end Fathom hollowed out the almost square, approximately 57-m² building, which had previously been used as a storage shed, and filled its existing opening to the road with a sliding steel door. On its north-east side, Tutiru provides views to the outdoors through two horizontal wood-framed windows in the seating area. A contiguous lime wood veneer bench complemented by a small canopy and filigree Plexiglas tables form a secluded niche. The windows are set at a height that enables seated guests to look out at the surroundings. 

Cores for zoning

The interior is sheathed in an outer skin made up of a visible steel structure. Despite the industrial appearance of the materials, the pitched roof in trapezoidal sheet metal creates a protective atmosphere. Interior zoning is achieved by means of two plasterboard cores; the larger one contains the kitchen and is situated in the middle; the second one is set against the northwest wall and accommodates the toilets. Both have the effect of separating the café from the flower shop while maintaining an open feel of space.

Two cores of plasterboard zone the interior. © Tatsuya Tabii

The focal point of Tutiru consists of the large counter; rising in curved lines from the floor in the entrance area, it forms a connecting element between indoors and outdoors. Its singular geometry is derived from the shape of nearby Mount Lino. The paving material used for the road was used in its construction, resulting in a fluid transition from the counter to the road surfacing.

Withdrawal and openness

The outer area of the café on a concrete slab contributes to the spatial overlap, and being oriented to the working area of the farm operations, mediates between the agricultural and gastronomic uses. The architects have managed in this way to achieve a skilful balance of withdrawal and openness, one in which the surroundings become a subtle part of the interior.