Today, CASETiFY has announced its first global flagship store, CASETiFY OSAKA, designed by renowned architect André Fu. After a wealth of experience in Japan, including the design of Hotel The Mitsui Kyoto, SÉZANNE Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo and others, CASETiFY OSAKA is the first retail project that the Hong Kong-based architect created in Japan.
With an aim of bringing the allure of the dynamic Shinsaibashi neighborhood into the store, André Fu has re-imagined the craftmanship of traditional Japanese Shoji lanterns as a nexus between the local landscape and the vibrant world of popping colors that the CASETiFY brand is known for.
The inspiration for the project is drawn from the essence of modern urbanity that the Shinsaibashi neighborhood evokes André. The overall concept is rooted in a vision to celebrate the distinct context of the project with contrasting shapes and forms, capturing the neighborhood’s cinematic streetscape in a world where bold geometries juxtapose against each other.
In order to bring that vision to life, André has chosen full-height shoji lanterns as the medium for the scheme – customers are invited to enter a journey that is adorned with cylindrical shoji screens, intertwining curved walls, discovering a duplex universe where colors, forms and graphics seamlessly fold and unfold.
At the rear of the street level there is a secret shoji window which shall slide and unveil the customer’s customized online purchase. Beyond being able to create customizable accessories at the store, CASETiFY is known as a brand that provides personalization on the spot at the 28 retail locations it holds globally.
André Fu comments: ‘It is an engaging opportunity to re-imagine the spirit of CASETiFY in the context of contemporary Osaka with my personal aesthetics. A lot of my work is rooted in the idea of a journey that takes the contextual quality of each project into an architectural medium. The world of shoji lanterns that goes around you, that folds and unfolds, creates that effect. It transports you from the everyday reality of the neighborhood to an imaginary, illusionistic expression that blends a relaxed sense of luxury with the popping CASETiFY colors that the brand is so well known for”.
The CASETiFY OSAKA store is open to the public as from today and will not only remain a space for retail, but also one of the many cultural hubs that the brand has, where artists and creatives from different parts of the world can exhibit their artful collections and get in touch with the local art scene via events and other activities.
