BAP Exclusive
(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
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Location:
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5-5-8 Minamiaoyama
Aoyama
Tokyo
Minato-ku
Japan
coordinates:
lat 35.6636963, long 139.7136078
Building names(s): BAP Exclusive
Architect/Designer:
WonderWall
architect website:
Other Information:
Completion date: 2005
Function:
Getting there:Chiyoda, Ginza, Hanzomon lines to Omote-sando (exits A4)
Last modified: 3 May, 2010 | Suggested By M2S
The two-storey building is a simple box on the outside but the interior is full of confusing surprises. The ground floor showroom is clad in sanitorium-white tiles and harshly lit, recalling municipal changing rooms.
The ceiling – which is covered in a camouflage pattern based on the brand’s ape-head logo – contains a pill-shaped void that reveals views of trainers revolving on an upside-down conveyor belt on a ceiling high above.
It is an illusion: the upper-floor ceiling is mirrored to reflect a sushi-restaurant-style conveyor that runs around the ceiling void.
On climbing the stairs, confusion heightens: you find yourself in a confined lobby with seemingly no escape. Only by pushing on the mirrored panels can you eventually locate the doors to the upper sales floor.
Here, you discover that the conveyor belt is encased in glass. This is a deliberately disorientating interior that replicates the apparent chaos, idiosyncrasy and discordant variety of Tokyo itself.