What is the secret to the popularity of % ARABICA, Kyoto's most popular cafe?

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In recent years, the coffee boom has once again swept Japan, professional and high-quality coffee bean roasters have landed one after another, and the competition is fierce. And the popular shop that has quickly become the darling of social media is% ARABICA Coffee Roasters. In September 2014,% ARABICA officially opened their first store in Japan in Toyama, Kyoto, and then got out of control. The following year, it opened a second store in Kyoto's Lashan Mountain, and set up two guerrilla stores in Kyoto.

What on earth is the secret of% ARABICA's popularity? Today, picky coffee can no longer be conquered by a cup of delicious coffee or the pull of a world champion.% ARABICA is exquisite and comfortable in all shops in Kyoto, with a continuous but unique interior design that satisfies guests' taste buds and eyeballs.

% ARABICA Coffee Tokyo Dongshan Store

"showcase in the alley"

Walking down the Yasaka path facing Yasaka Pagoda in Kyoto, a small white house with a great sense of transparency at the end of the road is the popular% ARABICA Coffee Roasters No.1 shop in Toshan, Kyoto.

With "showcase in the alley" as the concept, PUDDLE, a young design company, is responsible for renovating the interior of this 50-year-old two-story house, not only selling high-quality roasted coffee, but also showing the beautiful and busy scene of the coffee shop to visitors visiting Kyoto. The eye-catching huge glass curtain wall of the storefront makes one want to find out.

A hand-polished artificial marble white counter is set up in the center of the store, which shows like a show every important step needed to make a delicious cup of coffee, strengthening the importance of the hand-made process in the process of making coffee. the huge counter polished by hand shows a sense of existence without oppression and becomes a place where people gather naturally.

PUDDLE wants to explore the world through coffee beans and portrays one side of space as a place where people can communicate freely through coffee. "Communication" is the design keyword of PUDDLE and its founder, Mr. Kuang Yi Kato.

"for people who have been in the same place of communication for a long time, how to enjoy the space itself longer and more happily is what I am good at thinking about." Mr. Kato said. Not only the building itself, but also the exchange and dialogue with the existing environment and the land itself, but also an important part of the design.

In order to complete the design project of% ARABICA Kyoto store, Mr. Kuangyi Kato and his clients traveled around the world for a year, during which they absorbed and shared design inspiration and different values from all over the world. Through this year's trip, he has also become close friends with clients, as inseparable as family, and even now continues to explore the world of design.

The value of interpersonal relationships is also reflected in the design of% ARABICA. At the foot of the busy and noisy tourist attractions, inside the glass curtain wall, the passage of time becomes slow and leisurely, and people who love coffee beans gather to talk about a conversation with the aroma of coffee. Mr. Kato seems to have created a small community dedicated to coffee people.

Create everything about space. -PUDDLE

"for me, design starts from the standpoint of the actual user. Compared with the space transformed by the designer, the space that can grow naturally with the people who use this space is what I want to design. "

When designing a space, details such as switches, sockets and audio settings must also be taken into account, and the objects that will exist in the space, and even what kind of story will happen later during this period, must be taken into account in the design.

Kato and his wife Naixiang co-founded the design company PUDDLE

After graduating from the department of architecture, Mr. Kato was introduced by his predecessors to work in Kengo Kuma's architecture firm, and then gradually became interested in interior design and industrial design. then he focused on the design of this "scale that can be touched by both hands". In 2012, Kato and his wife Naixiang finally founded the young design company PUDDLE.

PUDDLE's designs are mostly transparent and compact, with white and wood as the tone, daylight, open but full of privacy, like a white bird's nest rooted in and floating on the ground.

% ARABICA Kyoto Lanshan Store

"the concrete representation of floating in borrowed scenery"

Away from the noisy main road of tourists, No.2 shop stands along the quiet coast of Guichuan with the old pavilion. Draw lessons from the unique eaves and high-bed design of Japanese architecture, make it better integrate into the scenery full of ancient capital amorous feelings, and take the opening and closing of the paper door as an opportunity to borrow the four seasons scenery of Lanshan into the interior.

Shop No. 2 still uses glass curtain walls in order to make the busy scene in the store better echo the scenery outside the store and highlight the sense of existence of the coffee shop.

The elegant posture of crossing the moon bridge in a place where you can make a cup of mellow coffee is probably an experience unmatched anywhere else.

Every detail of the design is full of ingenuity.

% ARABICA guerrilla shop

"from establishment to withdrawal, it is all part of the work."

In addition, PUDDLE also designed% ARABICA guerrilla stores set up in gallery in Beijing and Daemu Fujii department stores in Kyoto.

% ARABICA guerrilla store of Daemaru Fujii Department Store in Kyoto

Storefront to facilitate recycling as a starting point, "from the establishment to the withdrawal of the whole series is part of the work" as the concept, the use of lightweight materials to create inorganic space, a new collision with the old gallery and bustling department stores.

% ARABICA guerrilla shop of gallery in Beijing

PUDDLE values the relationship between people and runs their Republic. "if you can't resonate with your customers, you can't do anything." Mr. Kato will surely fill every sunken land of longing all over the world with his own fountain of design and create aesthetic puddles that reflect light.

Good days start with coffee & you.

What does it look like to make your coffee taste better?

Article source / Voicer

Picture source /% ARABICA