The Slow and Green: Yoyogi Village by Kurkku.

I’m an architect who currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. ‘Folding’ has been my modus operandi ever since I began my design education at RISD, and the technique has served numerous possibilities in my works. Hence, this has inspired me to create an online archive on design that utilizes folding as well as innovative material applications, and so Pleat Farm was born.

Pleat Farm is an informational and inspirational online platform, and a design pasture for all things apparel, textiles, architecture, furniture, paper art and product design-related – with a twist and a fold. Pleat Farm is about more than origami. The site is focused entirely on innovations in material applications involving bending, knotting.

Thanks to Dana for the honor of guest-posting on her beautiful blog!

‘Retail villages’ have been an emerging occurrence in Tokyo as of recently, and Yoyogi Village is one such concept which integrates a green, slow space/ sanctuary with an exclusive retail experience for the sophisticated urban crowd. The urban oasis is the brainchild of two high-profile music creatives Takeshi Kobayashi and Shinichi Osawa, and the two visionaries branded themselves as “Kurkku’ for this venture. Helming the overall architecture is interior designer Masamichi Katayama of Wonderwall in collaboration with ‘plant hunter’ and landscape designer Seijun Nishihata.

As you enter the compound through a gateway of steel and glass, you’ll be greeted with a “village” of specialty shops and cafes nestled in converted shipping containers. A landscaped pathway would take you to the main attraction – code kurkku – which comprises of a lounge area, a music bar, and an eatery with a focus on Kyoto-Italian organic cuisine. The choice of natural wood floors and ceilings harks back to the wood architecture of rural Japan, and it is further enhanced by Nishihata’s lush massive green living wall which is breathtaking when viewed on every angle.

So the next time you jet off to Tokyo and feel the need to slow down, hope on the JR line heading for Yoyogi and step into the Village!

– Pleat Farm.

[via spoon and tamago. Photography by Nacasa & Partners.]