BIZOUX is a jewellery brand that was born in 2009 with the brand concept of “a beloved piece of jewellery that can be cherished for a lifetime”, and offers original jewellery using more than 100 types of natural and coloured stones.

The store location faces a slightly slanted corridor inside the Omotesando Hills building on the Omotesando street occupied with luxury boutiques in the heart of Tokyo. I came up with the store concept “a place where gems are born” and wanted to create the space to make it seem as if one has wandered into a mine.

The store entrance is set slightly back from the corridor and I designed the series of arches from the front to the rear of the store in order to create an inviting mood for customers so that they want to come into the space, whilst creating the cave like atmosphere which could give an overwhelming feel if designed wrongly. The arches also have a role in allowing customers to enjoy “searching for gems” whilst softly separating their line of sight.

To create an environment where gemstones are born, the showcases on the walls were coloured to match the colours of the gemstones. Whilst almost all of the interior surfaces: floor, walls, ceiling and even display furniture, were plastered with a uniform plastering technique, the roughness of the aggregates added a change in expression. In addition, to create a sense of life in the cave, contrasting layers of glass were used to express the “freshness” of a water source.