tutiru

A farmer who grows mums, the Western chrysanthemum, has opened a café and flower store on the farm. Mums are known for their straight stems and full blooms, and there are around 400 varieties. In Japan they are tied to weddings and funerals, and the farmer wanted to bring their quieter beauty into everyday life, including through food.

Rows of plastic greenhouses cover the land, each kept at its own conditions so that flowers can be cut all year round. Inside, the stems stand in straight, even lines, held at set heights before they bloom. Together with the water tanks and an old steel-framed warehouse, these purely functional structures give the farm its character, and the design team chose to keep it.

The warehouse was converted without altering its exterior or interior shell. A square plan is divided along the existing large opening into a shop and a café. The kitchen and seating are gathered into a single volume set inside the warehouse, like a shop within a shop, so that nothing new attaches to the old structure.

The design plays the horizontal spread of the earth against the vertical growth of the stems. In front of the large opening, a broad counter rises out of the floor as if lifted from the ground, a reference to soil, which also gives the store its name, and to the line of a nearby mountain. The same road-paving material runs from the floor up to waist height and over the top of the counter, giving it a fine texture and the strength both surfaces need.

Stems return as cylinders of different lengths and materials: the edges of the outdoor benches, the handrail at the entrance, lamps made from fluorescent tubes and the acrylic case for sweets. The café sits on the working side of the farm. The old sashes were removed for a large glass opening that frames the daily work outside, and the tables themselves serve as vases.