Okomeya

This rice shop sits on a modest shopping street that once thrived with small independent shops. The street has declined sharply, many shops have closed, and it had become a street of shutters close to disappearing. A local team that runs a roastery and a café on the same street is working to bring it back, and wanted to open a rice shop.

The design team was asked to renovate a wooden building that had been a vegetable shop, with the shop facing the street and the owner’s home behind. The shop is narrow, about 16.6 m². The client wanted to keep it small enough for one person to run, so the design stayed simple and low in cost.

The shop depends on its neighbours. When the one staff member has to step out, the shops next door keep an eye on it. That kind of small help is what keeps little businesses going on local streets, and the street and its shops hold each other up.

The building was old and run-down, but the team chose to regenerate all of it, not just the shop. Existing columns and wood surfaces were sanded until they matched the colour of the new lauan plywood used for the fittings, so old and new are almost impossible to tell apart. The shop is quiet and does not stand out, but the team hopes that renewing more shops this way will lift the whole street.