A renowned symbol of the modern world, Tokyo is a city commonly associated with bright lights, innovative technology and sleek buildings. So when Polish artist Mateusz Urbanowicz first moved to Tokyo, he was taken aback by the number of old, architecturally eclectic storefronts that continued to flourish within the city.
“When I moved to Tokyo, more than 3 years ago I was really surprised that upon my walks I encountered so many shops still in business in really old buildings,” Urbanowicz explains. “Differently to Kobe, where the earthquake wiped out a lot of these old downtown houses and shops, in Tokyo they still survive.”
Inspired by the buildings’ resilience and their unique architectural features, Urbanowicz set out to document the storefronts in a series of watercolor illustrations, capturing the process through making-of videos.
The illustrations show buildings of a wide variety of architectural styles, employing elements ranging from traditional tile roofs to rounded display windows. While many of the details portrayed are true to life, Urbanowicz also takes artistic license to “fill in the gaps in the designs” to create the pleasing compositions.
“I really like buildings that are lived in and cared for for a long time. This is one of the reasons I like Japan and the city buildings so much,” he continues.
“A lot of the old shops and houses were destroyed because of the war or natural disasters, or were replaced with high-rise offices, but there still are some surviving and thriving. I always try to paint them so one can sense the story and human presence in them.”
Isetatsu traditional color woodblock print store from Yanaka district and Ootoya meat shop from Koujimachi district
“The architectural plan is a formula to order the anarchy of space.”
In these latest images from Federico Babina, the artist explores the design styles of 25 of history's greatest architects, abstracting the plans of some of their most famous creations onto simple geometric backgrounds. The resulting illustrations resemble dynamic labyrinths or abstract symbols, and are what Babina refers to as “Planimetric graphologies.”
“Analyzing an architectural plan is how to make a graphology study,” explains Babina. “The plans are like the signatures of architects and can reveal conceptual details about the artistic and aesthetic personalities of their authors.”
Now in its 20th year, the COTE Top Ten Awards program honors projects that protect and enhance the environment through an integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology.
A recently released study, entitled Lessons from the Leading Edge, reports that design projects recognized through this program are “outpacing the industry by virtually every standard of performance.”
Biosciences Research Building (BRB); Galway, Ireland / Payette and Reddy Architecture + Urbanism
The design of the BRB embraces the moderate climate of Ireland. By locating low-load spaces along the perimeter of the building, the project is able to take advantage of natural ventilation as the sole conditioning strategy for the majority of the year and is supplemented less than 10% of the year with radiant heating. Due to this approach, 45% of this intensive research building is able to function without mechanical ventilation. This is an extremely simple, yet radical approach and is rarely implemented to even a modest extent in similar laboratories in comparable U.S. climates.
The CSL is an education, research and administration facility at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Designed to be the greenest building in the world, it generates all of its own energy and treats all storm and sanitary water captured on-site. The CSL is the first and only building to meet four of the highest green certifications: the Living Building Challenge, LEED Platinum, WELL Building Platinum, and Four-Stars Sustainable SITES. As an integral part of the Phipps visitor experience, the CSL focuses attention on the important intersection between the built and natural environments, demonstrating that human and environmental health are inextricably connected.
The Exploratorium is an interactive science museum that also demonstrates innovation and sustainability in its design and construction. The building takes advantage of the historic pier shed’s natural lighting and the 800-foot-long roof provided room for a 1.3 megawatt photovoltaic array. The water of the bay is used for cooling and heating. Materials were used that are both sustainable and durable enough to withstand a harsh maritime climate. The project is certified LEED Platinum and is close to reaching its goal of being the country’s largest Net Zero energy museum and an industry model for what is possible in contemporary museums.
H-E-B at Mueller is an 83,587-square-foot LEED Gold and Austin Energy Green Building 4-Stars retail store and fresh food market, including a pharmacy, café, community meeting room, outdoor gathering spaces, and fuel station. It serves 16 neighborhoods and is located in Mueller, a sustainable, mixed-use urban Austin community. Strategies include a collaborative research, goal-setting and design process; integrated chilled water HVAC and refrigeration systems; the first North American supermarket propane refrigeration system; optimized daylighting; 169 kW roof-top solar array; electric vehicle charging; all LED lighting; and reclaimed water use for landscape irrigation, toilets, and cooling tower make-up water.
Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation; Berkeley, CA / Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects
Founded on the conviction that design can help address some of society’s most pressing challenges, the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at UC Berkeley is devoted to introducing sustainable design innovation at the core of university life. The project provides a new interdisciplinary hub for students and teachers from across the university who work at the intersection of design and technology. It is designed as both a collaborative, project-based educational space and a symbol to the region of the University’s commitment to sustainable innovation, modelling high-density / low-carbon living and learning by reducing energy use 90% below national baseline.
Rene Cazenave Apartments; San Francisco / Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects and Saida + Sullivan Design Partners, Associated Architect
This supportive housing for formerly chronically homeless individuals replaces a former parking lot and freeway off-ramp with a high density, transit oriented, and healthy living alternative. Filtered ventilation, low emitting materials, ample daylight and views combine to aid the residents, many with mental and physical disabilities. Energy costs for the residents and non-profit owner are minimized by a combination of high efficiency lighting and hydronic heating, a continuously insulated rain-screen building envelope and a roof top solar canopy with both hot water and photovoltaic panels. Water is carefully managed by a vegetated roof, smart irrigation, a courtyard storm water tank and reclaimed water piping.
The Josey Pavilion is a multi-functional education and meeting center that supports the mission of the Dixon Water Foundation to promote healthy watersheds through sustainable land management. Traditionally livestock has caused more harm than good by overgrazing and not allowing native prairies to play their important role in habitat and watershed protection, and carbon sequestration. As a certified Living Building, the Josey Pavilion facilitates a deeper understanding of how grazing livestock as well as the built environment can work to do more good than harm. Just like the Heritage Live Oak that defines the site, the building tempers the climate and enhances visitor experience by shading the sun, blocking the wind, and providing protected views.
The J. Craig Venter Institute; San Diego / ZGF Architects LLP
This not-for-profit research institute, dedicated to the advancement of the science of genomics, was in need of a permanent West Coast home. Their commitment to environmental stewardship led to challenging the architects to design a net-zero energy laboratory building, the first in the U.S. The result is a LEED-Platinum certified, 44,607-square-foot building comprised of a wet laboratory wing and an office / dry laboratory wing surrounding a central courtyard, all above a partially below-grade parking structure for 112 cars. The holistic approach to the design revolved around energy performance, water conservation, and sustainable materials.
University of Wyoming - Visual Arts Facility; Laramie, WY / Hacker Architects and Malone Belton Able PC
The Visual Arts Facility (VAF) consolidates the fine arts program from its scattered locations throughout the campus. The building provides a teaching and learning environment that is both state-of-the-art in occupational safety and in its concern for discharge of pollutants from building. The roof area is fitted with one of the largest solar evacuated tube installations in the U.S. Heat flows from the evacuated tubes to support the hydronic radiant floors, domestic hot water, and pretreat outside air for ventilation. The building was oriented and shaped through a process of studying the sun’s interaction with interior spaces, simultaneously distributing reflected light while eliminating solar gain.
West Branch of the Berkeley Public Library; Berkeley, CA / Harley Ellis Devereaux
The new 9,500-square-foot West Branch of the Berkeley Public Library is the first certified Living Building Challenge zero net energy public library in California. The building’s energy footprint was minimized through integrated strategies for daylighting (the building is 97% daylit), natural ventilation and a high performance building envelope. An innovative wind chimney provides cross-ventilation while protecting the library interior from street noise. Renewable energy on site includes photovoltaic panels and solar thermal panels for radiant heating and cooling and domestic hot water. The library exceeds the 2030 Challenge and complies with Berkeley’s recently-enacted Climate Action Plan.
Details: With her From Siberia collection Russian-born, Berlin-based designer Anastasiya Koshcheeva is turning an old Siberian handicraft from her hometown into compelling contemporary design. The products; a stool, containers and lights, are all made of strips of natural birchbark.
Says Koshcheeva, “The collection invigorates the craft and recovers traditional manufacturing birchbark techniques which are currently being forgotten.”
Each product presents the unique qualities of birchbark. The Taburet Stool’s three-dimensional meshwork is made of birchbark strips sewn and fixed together on a steel frame. The stable and springy seat creates an optical illusion as well as cushioning the stool in a decorative and comfortable way.
“The bark is soft, but also stiff enough to avoid sagging of the meshwork. Taburet shows how flexible, durable and strong the birchbark is.”
Tuesa Containers “are perfect for the storage of food, spices or tea. Thanks to the antibacterial and isolating qualities of birchbark, Tuesa can keep contents fresh two or even three times longer than conventional materials such as glass or plastics.”
“The vessels are very easy to handle: they are light, robust and have a soft and non-slip surface, even if they get wet.”
The containers are available in three different sizes.
“All the products of the series are manufactured by Siberian craftsmen with a lot of love and care, using traditional knowledge and only the best natural bark.”
The concept of the Svetoch Lamp is based on a traditional glueless craft method of joining birchbark parts together. “Svetoch produces a soft and diffused light, making every room homey and celebrating the material.”
See also: Koshcheeva’s Sibirjak lounge chair made of birchbark which debuted at Salone Satellite Moscow 2014.
I can’t even begin to convey the irony of this post. It is literally Labor Day – a holiday – and I’m sitting in my customary spot on the couch writing this article. Bonus level of irony – I initially claimed this particular spot on the couch because it is positioned so that I can lay down and watch television; sitting upright is for uncommitted people. My prized spot, positioned to maximize slothful behavior, is typically used more for work than leisure.
Another bit of irony is that I took a break from working so that I could write this article, which is essentially more work. When I’m done. I’ll stop working so that I can continue working.
Apparently work is my respite from work. Whenever I’ve been working too much and I need a distraction, I do some work … I just change out the type of work.
That doesn’t make any sense.
I am completely aware of my circumstances and for the most part, I’m okay with it because the only reason it exists like this is because I choose to have it this way, at least for now.
MMB Architects Office – after hours and on the weekend … empty
Work / Life is a topic that is frequently discussed whenever a group of architects get together. When I was a bit younger, most of my associates discussed how they were worked to death and were compensated in peanuts for their efforts. I would simply nod my head and say “yeah” a lot – more to fit in than anything else because that never really happened to me. EVER. Sure, there were times when I worked a lot but it was because I felt ownership in the work and wanted it to be the very best product I was capable of creating. We didn’t keep time sheets; our deadlines were identified by the day, not how many hours we had to finish the work. I could have gotten my work done in less time, gone home, and done something else but my work was exciting to me … this is what I wanted to be doing. Why would I want to leave and go do something else?
Eventually, the low salary might have been a drag but I learned a long time ago that you don’t take a job just for the money (“Golden Handcuffs“) and if you can find work that is rewarding and you can make enough money to meet your needs, I think you’re better off than most of the people out there.
If the culture of an architectural office requires their people to routinely make sacrifices for the sake of the business, I think there’s a problem somewhere.
I remember that time in my life very well and I draw upon those feelings and experiences now that my name is on the front door of the office. As a general rule, don’t work overtime in my office. I can only remember a few brief periods where we all came together to get something completed in order to meet a promise we made to a client – but normally everybody can leave when they want. I want people to have a life outside of the office (if that’s what they really want). I am a big believer in that you don’t ask anybody to do something that you yourself aren’t willing to do – and I work more than anyone in my office.
If the culture of an architectural office requires their people to routinely make sacrifices for the sake of the business, I think there’s a problem somewhere. Don’t get me wrong; I like working and would think it pretty cool if all the people in my office loved working so much that it was how they choose to spend their free time … but it certainly isn’t a requirement. I would be devastated if I heard through the architectural grapevine that the someone in my office felt like most of my friends did in the mid-90’s … that you had to work longer and harder than everyone around you.
When it’s late, sometimes I work at this teeny tiny desk.
This is day 3 of my 3-day weekend and I have spent the vast majority of it working. Between exchanging text messages with a client, visiting job sites (that I couldn’t make it to during the week) to check on progress, working on a professional development project (that might literally be killing me), working on the beginning outline of a presentation I am participating in during the Texas Society of Architect convention, writing this post … I literally took the opportunity to go to the grocery store because it would be a break.
I wrote something last week that basically told architecture students that they should define themselves by something other than the work they create; get a hobby or something. While I believe that to be true, I am not an architecture student and therefore believe that I can say the one thing and behave in a completely opposite manner. For example – writing this blog post is work and yes, it is frequently “architecture” related. I don’t have to write it, I could lay down on the couch and reclaim my rightful horizontal position in front of the television if I wanted to. Some days I want that more than others, but based on the emails I receive, I think I’m making a difference for people and as a result, feel some sort of responsibility to postpone my time on the couch – not forever, but for a bit longer.
But don’t think I am asking you to feel sorry for me – it’s the exact opposite. I have so many cool things happening right now that I can barely stand it. I am excited. I am exhausted. I am energized. I am stressed, I am anxious … I am alive.
Unless you’re mad at me, otherwise, I am not alive and please send a donation to my wife in lieu of flowers.
Quite literally the worst thing I could think of is having a job and a life where one only began when the other one ended. I hope you enjoy what you do enough that you have trouble separating one from the other as well.
This is the 12th entry into a series titled “ArchiTalks”.
When I started #ArchiTalks, I wanted people to discover that architects have different experiences, backgrounds, and objectives. Despite architects all getting lumped together with a handful of broad stereotypes, we are all onions … we have layers.
If you would like to see how other architects responded to the topic of “Work | Life”, just follow the links below.
From the architect. The project is located on the north limit of the old town of Pamplona, at the end of the plateau where it is placed, next to Ronda Promenade, the limit of the medieval walled area.
This project has been promoted by the public administration, in order to revitalize the most degraded zone of the old town within the municipal housing plan.
The project was included within a high interest urban plan. The new building, which take up the demolition of an existing one, had to complete the preexisting block and to face a new urban space, a new generation square on the medieval wall. Due to the difficult economic situation, this urban development was postponed, incorporating to the project the definition of a passageway of semi-private nature which allowed the viability of the initiative.
The program consisted basically of apartments to be used as rehousing, which specific detail of the program was unknown at the time of the competition. Exclusively was known that six apartments had to be built; for six rehousing of six families and hence with six different programs, in addition of different trade premises on the ground floor, to promote the commercial activity of the zone and the restoration of a medieval cavern located in the basement of the old building.
Besides the initial uncertainty of the program, the design of the competition aimed, as starting point, for an organizational strategy to solve the necessities of the future rehousing. This plot, facing the urban situation generated, undertook a new approach of the building different to the ones at the surroundings, where the typical rule placed the most important spaces towards the streets, and interior bedrooms. The project linked the position of the bedrooms to the lateral streets and the most public areas of the apartments to the new generation square; and between both located the corridor of humid spaces (bad rooms and clothes lines) which made at the same time more legible the organizational structure designed. Finally, kitchens were placed open to the “livings”, separated by a glass, in coherence with the most public nature of those spaces.
Basement Floor Plan
At the same time, it was aimed for the most optimal solution for the communications core, in comparison with more “special” solutions considering the formal and special resolution of the stairs, which allowed on a so small plot, an occupation of the surface smaller and hence, more square meters assigned to the apartment surface. It position and small size allowed to locate in one side an apartment of 40 m2 and in the other side one of 65 m2, in which spaces, with certain naturalness, it could be occupied with one single and two rooms apartments with the organizational rule previously established.
The proposal of the competition considering such occupational strategy of the building understood that the development of the plan was optimized and any manipulation would not allow a better solution considering the uses and location criteria. But in the other hand it was possible a development of the spaces of the apartments which allow a higher flexibility as response for the uncertain future of the users. In such way it could be possible to vary, connecting spaces with different levels, from approximately 40 m2 apartment to a 75 m2 and from 65 m2 to 90 m2 making twice the half of the surface, and even reaching a surface of 120 m2. Hence this approach was not only an optimal solution, in addition could cover the usual spectrum of the surfaces of the future programs unknown at this stage.
Elevation 1
The communications core, in spite of its optimized configuration, we understood it might have more presence that just a series of stairs where occurs the up and down movement. That one was formalized with concrete PISAS which kept free the risersand hence allowed the light pass through: to understand the stair as a singular space beyond of the functional use and to take advantage of the visual depth in spite of its small size.
At the ground floor two trade premises connected to the public space, located at both sides of the communication core. In one of them it was integrated the XVI century arched area of the preexisting basement, which had to be preserved.
The project, from the intuition, pretended to be presented as the junction of two pieces following the growth criteria of the old town, where the sum of pieces generated from the public space forms the blocks. In that way it was warrantied a more natural integration, adding its façades, its scale, its fragmentation and composition a certain urban continuity to the existing one.
The design of the façades pays attention to two different situations according the position in the public space: in one side from the streets seeking a certain anonymous presence of the proposal giving continuity to what there “happened”: to the normative trace and rigorous of the axial order in Descalzos street, and apparently without regular pattern as consequence of the character of the “back” of the buildings at the Ronda Promenade and in the other side from the new square which transformed the party wall in a singular elevation, free of references and normative context. This façade with double level, the spaces in the wall gain a bigger size, big square windows in comparison with the space which face and the enjoyable landscape with a free order which allowed move the uncertainty of the section and program.
The treatment of the party wall of the adjacent nursery was incorporated to the project formalizing finally the passageway. This canvas of the same façade material is folded and absorbs the irregularities of such building which had to be maintained.
Beyond the most organizational questions and others as the attention on the scale, are the fragmentation and piecescoupling. The project has to do with the color and texture of its finishing aiming to coexist with the old, with the patina of the time made material already wore down. Has to be with the design and the composition of spaces in the matter as well as has to be with corner moldings and the gravity artifice. With the chromatic austerity and material which speaks about the time passing, its dry trace, avoiding the superfluous which time finally delete, as integrator mechanism and as all that will be materially adapted to the “time speed” of the already existing. Since the architecture work goes into a correlation of facts in the time which has there occurred, our activity is understood as a part of a sequence.
Architects: Archea Associati
Location: Via IV Novembre, 24128 Bergamo BG, Italy
Area: 1960.0 sqm
Year: 2009
Photographs: Pietro Savorelli
Design Architects: Laura Andreini, Marco Casamonti, Silvia Fabi, Giovanni Polazzi
Director Of Works: Archea Associati – Marco Casamonti
Direction Of Works Assistant: Ezio Biondi, Giuseppe Pezzano
Structures: Mario Myallonnier
Thermotechnical Systems: Studio Armondi
Electric Systems: Studio Armondi
General Contractor: Viola Costruzioni
Cost: 2.000.000,00 di Euro
From the architect. The project, conceived in 1997, provided for the implementation of the new library and auditorium in Curno, a small town in the province of Bergamo.
The project is located inside a larger area, meant to be a school and community services complex, and posits itself as an element generative of a different dimension of public space, capable of designing a new square, a contemporary theater and its extension and stairs, is a reinterpretation of the traditional cavea: a space for meditation and observation.
The project, which covers about 2,000sqm, is a monolith of concrete pigmented with iron oxides, completely decorated with a bas-relief engraved with the letters of the alphabet. The main image in the perspective, which looks towards the square, recalls that of an open book whose words, engraved in the pages, enrich and give identity to the bare surfaces of the cement.
The structure, divided by a long corridor bounded by a concrete double wall, visually connects the square to the back of the middle school and identifies two distinct parts that contain within them the main functions: the Auditorium and the Library.
The presence in a single building of two distinct functions is obliged to maintain compliance with fire prevention regulations, a clear separation between the two activities, providing them with a zone-filter. The central corridor constitutes the true backbone of the project with structural as well as plant features, while the two concrete 40cm walls make up the carrying structure for the Auditorium cover, for that of the reading room, as well as accommodation for the air-conditioning system, and the distribution of electricity and fire prevention system.
During construction of the concrete walls a series of 200mm diameter PVC pipes were inserted into the walls, at regular intervals, ensuring a perfect distribution of air inside the rooms. In the basement floor, under the central corridor, there is a long and spacious warehouse for books with shelves made through the assembly of commercial metal sections.
This floor houses all of the technical areas for the boilers, airconditioning system, and refrigeration unit. Access to the new structure starts through a path covered by a jutted-out cantilevered roof, in pigmented concrete, that connects with the nearby middle school. The entry foyer also features an area for an eventual ticket window or waiting room, allowing direct connection with both the auditorium and the library through the corridor-periodicals room.
The auditorium is developed in the space under the stairway and includes a room on two levels and that can accommodate about 200 people, completely covered with panels of industrial cherry wood to ensure the room optimal acoustics. In the lower part behind the stage are dressing rooms and two spaces for warehouse use.
From the corridor-periodicals room – on two levels, fully illuminated from above by a long skylight and a large shelving made of metal sections, which allows both the placement and the use of about 50% of volumes – we can access the main reading room: a doubleheight space illuminated by a few banded windows that cut for the entire length of the reading room facade surface, and by two skylights.
These lights give light to the reading room and to the mezzanine above: a reading space connected to a metal guard rail network structure, lengthened by a long wooden landing. The reading room, even though configured as a single volume, is divided into two areas by the main desk; a smaller one for children, and a larger one for teens and adults.
In the design of the library it was determined that the entire building would be realized with a unique material that confers to an architectural object a unified look, thereby optimizing the articulation of the volumes. Through various laboratory tests and various samples, they opted for a colored concrete with a “mix-design” integrated with natural iron oxide pigments and with the addition of lubricants to make the concrete workable according to particular conformations of the molds.
This “mix-design” has enabled the realization of a concrete with high resistance and durability that have been enriched by a surface treatment comprised of a slurry of pigmented cement with iron oxides, and finished with a varnish of protective silicone. The realization of the letters on the surface of the walls was made possible by the positioning of plastic matrices onto those surfaces.
With regard to the thermal resistance characteristics it has been provided Curno Municipal Library and Auditorium to incorporate within the walls, as well as the air passage channels, some polystyrene panels of different thickness to create an effective thermal caulking between the exterior and interior of the building.
Two simple sentences could be used to respond to about 1/3rd of all the emails I receive:
“If studying to become an architect is making you miserable, don’t be one.”
“If being an architect is making you miserable, don’t be one.”
Those are two sentences that I rarely write – although I probably should use them more often. I don’t because those two sentences seem mean-spirited considering the sort of question that was probably asked that could elicit such a response.
I have been traveling for the last week and while I stayed on top of all my work emails, I tried to ignore all the “life of an architect” emails. A very large percentage of them come from people who are despondent and miserable about their current state where they:
a) want to be an architect but aren’t, b) are currently studying to be an architect and are struggling, or c) they are an architect and don’t like it and think they’re simply doing something wrong.
That’s where the two sentences above should come into play. I know that letting go of a dream is hard – and most of these people have always dreamt of being an architect – but here’s what I have to say to those people. Do something that makes you happy. If your current path is making you miserable, change paths.
I know I am oversimplifying what is always a complicated mix of aspirations, goals, dreams and expectations but there are times when the simple thing – while hard – is the right thing.
So many of the architects I know define themselves by being an architect (and have for years) that the very idea of doing something else brings about a different form of misery. I wrote the following passage in January, 2011, in a post titled ‘Do You Want to be an Architect?: The College Years‘:
When the day came and I showed up at college, I was surrounded by a bunch of hard-working, type A personalities. My pattern of “working the system” wasn’t working for me and I had a horrible go at things. I looked around at what I was doing compared to everyone else and I was terrible …. talk about an identity crisis. Can you imagine always knowing what you were supposed to do and then learning that you couldn’t actually do it?
Turns out a lot of you can imagine knowing what you were supposed to do and have since learned that you couldn’t do it – and I think that’s okay. These days when people write me for advice, I tell them to do what will make them happy, or at least, happier. When I was younger, happiness didn’t figure into the equation, it was al about keeping your eye on the prize. I’ve worked to long and too hard to give it up … and the misery goes on for years.
These emails impact me in a profound manner – partly because I can sympathize, and partly because I haven’t been able to come up with an answer that I can tell these people to make them feel better. If you have been in a position where you were unhappy with the path you pursued, I would really like you to share it with others in the comment section below. If it’s words of encouragement, if it’s an alternate path that satisfied your creative passions, or even if it’s a tale of a hard decision, please share it with others.
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© Mateusz Urbanowicz
Isetatsu traditional color woodblock print store from Yanaka district and Ootoya meat shop from Koujimachi district. Image © Mateusz Urbanowicz
Kobayashi hair salon from Sanbanchyo district. Image © Mateusz Urbanowicz
Chinese food restaurant from around the Takadanobaba district and Miyake bicycle shop based on shops from Kagurazaka and Kichijyouji. Image © Mateusz Urbanowicz
Noike sushi restaurant from Yanaka district. Image © Mateusz Urbanowicz
Yamane meat shop from Nippori district and Tsuruya (former) tailors, now retro variety shop from Jinbōchō district. Image © Mateusz Urbanowicz
Nakashimaya Japanese sake shop from Mejiro district and Kitchen Kuku restaurant from Kichijyouji district. Image © Mateusz Urbanowicz
