No specific function was required for the retail space that Kosaku Matsumoto has refurbished on the ground floor of a Tokyo busy street. The only need of the client was to use the space for a few days a year as a showroom. Japanese architect was inspired by the existing materiality of a former hairdresser. Impressions led Matsumoto to think of the interior as a quarry: bare and without a precise function, the showroom hides the services behind mobile panels, and is defined only by the texture of the walls, floor and ceiling.

The architect was fascinated by the decorative use of bricks that covered the lower part of the existing facade. This situation is reinterpreted with new bricks that create an imperfect surface and on which reinforced concrete panels are shaped. The artisan and creative experimentation of materials is the recurring theme of this small project of only 25sqm.