Le Labo’s New Kyoto Flagship Is Inside of a 145-Year-Old Home
Reimagined by Schemata Architects to embrace the Japanese Wabi-Sabi philosophy.
Le Labo’s new Kyoto flagship store and cafe was designed by architect Jo Nagasaka to adapt a 145-year-old traditional townhouse, called a “machiya” in Japanese. Nagasaka, the principal of Schemata Architects, brings the fragrance brand’s industrial sensibilities in alignment with the context of the heritage site, preserving the Japanese identity imbued in the bones of the building.
The facade is intentionally conservative, in honor of the surrounding city of streets of old Kyoto. On the adaptive reuse project, the architect shared that the partners “collectively felt it necessary to create a store that reflects the local and historical context of this old machiya in Kyoto because it is structurally and stylistically different from the concrete buildings that have housed their stores.” One could easily mistake the boutique for a late-19th-century home were it not for the sans-serif “Le Labo” word mark installed by the entrance and the branded curtain over the door.
The interior of the building is where the hallmarks of Le Labo’s brand identity shine through, with a mixture of dark brown wood, exposed brick and antique concrete making up the bulk of the interior finishes. Vintage Japanese furnishings and minimalistic decor are styled with industrial light fixtures and dark pine floating shelves. In the spirit of Japanese interior design, the height of shelving and display tables are situated lower than the Western standard, providing a grounding effect on the space.
The brand’s time-worn visual language feels very much in line with the Japanese aesthetic philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, which embraces natural marks of impermanence and imperfection. In the West, Le Labo locations often standout among other contemporary brick-and-mortar stores, as they are distinctively smaller, have warm and dark interiors and appear as if they had been there for generations. In recent years, Schemata Architects has also been enlisted to inaugurate the presence of other contemporary brands like Danish homeware brand HAY and Blue Bottle Coffee to Japanese cities.
The Le Labo Kyoto flagship store is open now and is located at Shimokorikisho 2-206, Nakagyo ward, Kyoto, Japan. Check out the gallery for images of the completed remodel of the historic site above!
