This unique café in Gifu, clad with polished mirrored surfaces, by Japanese design firm Bandesign reflects the landscape surrounding creating the suggestion of a cherry tree forest. Take a look at the complete story below.
A row of cherry trees is planted at an embankment at its basin, and many people visit this location during the cherry-blossom viewing season. There is Mirrors along the avenue. Taking advantage of this location, we intentionally made repeated refractions of the tree. In order to amplify the cherry two mirror walls set up angle position and making a cherry forest on a corner of the town. Overlapping the cherries and reflecting with a warp, the people are invited by it to the forest. In addition, in the café the people could see the cherries and the reflecting cherries at the same time and feel season changing closely. Especially vertical roof struts of motif of the tree blanch made them feeling of a rest under the tree. Between two buildings, white gravel makes more reflecting brightly and symbolically expressing the centre of a tree. There are three trees in this site, and the trees are camellia. Camellia makes flowers before cherry blossom. First, camellia is out red flowers, second cherry is out pink flowers. We designed changing season of winter to spring by the colors. Exterior wall is white steel that is galbanum plating. Entrance door is red. Interior wall is red and green. Every design and color implies being in the forest intentionally.
Photography by Shigetomo Mizuno
