Watch & Jewellery Square WAKO

“Inheritance Beyond 88 Years”

The Main Building of WAKO, an architecture completed in 1932. Located on the north side of the intersection of Ginza 4-chome, the building is an active luxury specialty store, with its original architecture intact. In order to preserve this stone building for the future and continue to use it as a commercial facility, the first and second floors of WAKO has been revived in 2020 with the aim of a new evolution, as a luxury watch and jewellery floors called “Watch & Jewellery Square WAKO”. The concept is “Inheritance Beyond 88 Years”. The large curved glass show window, set back from the intersection, was boldly made see-through, in order to leave a blank space in the town, while keeping in mind the intentions of Jin Watanabe, the architect at the time of completion, and building a relationship with the new generation of customers. By opening the window to the city, it functions as a place for interactive communication. I aimed to add a touch of “glamour” to welcome the new era while making the most of the dignity, by tracing the elegant architectural curvature and developing it inside the store, creating a free curved showcase space where visitors can enjoy the changing flow lines. I defined the glamour as “the beauty of the space that visualizes labor”. Artistic showcases made by patching rare veneers together like the annual rings of a single tree. The organic design of the pillars, reproduced on site as if a painting, by specifying the angle, color, and shape of each tile, which was fired in three shapes and three colors in a traditional Mino Ceramic studio. And large sheets of glass, melted, inflated and cooled on a mold plate. These represent the design that is not achievable only at a cost, but through the skill of the craftsmen and their willingness to spare no trouble.