[A-025]Heim Jens

2023
Tokyo
Kiyosumi Shirakawa

When I visit an exhibition of the fashion brand Jens, I look forward to seeing the clothes, of course, but I also look forward to seeing the spatial composition created by designer Toru Muto. The more I observe the space, the more I am drawn into his thinking, as he carefully reads or rereads the location and adds improvised arrangements and bricolage.

When Muto approached us with the idea of creating a boutique that would feel like the inside of someone’s home, we knew with certainty that the theme would be room arrangement. As architects, all we could do would be to provide warm and comfortable rooms, and as much as possible provide the skin and bones of the space for Muto to play with when styling.

The original terra cotta tiles on the floor were left in place. Some rails on the ceiling and curved aluminum pipes were added as bones. The architectural manipulation could be said to be almost exclusively that. The space was then covered with a smooth fabric, wallpapered, and carpeted in a bright blue color.

In the space surrounded by the soft covering, Muto arranged the furniture and furnishings for the house, which he had collected from various sources. A dresser, a mattress with legs, a slipper rack, a full-length mirror, cushions, a bench, a coffee table, an umbrella stand, silverware, and a tulip-shaped lamp.

As a boutique, the only difference from the residence is the absence of a closet. Clothes and jewelry that have lost their way will float, exposed and drifting in the space.

Let’s plug the ends of the aluminum pipes with champagne lids. Let’s tie the floor lamps to the beams and turn them into chandeliers. All the furniture and objects in the room would chain together like a constellation, creating a taste for the house. Was it Adolf Loos who said something like that?