Blue Bottle, three cafes in Asia designed by Schemata

“I adjust details to suit everybody’s eye level at the same height between the kitchen and space for the customers.” In the words of Jo Nagasaka, founder of Schemata architecture studio, these are the common traits that distinguish the projects of the three cafés that were designed in 2019 for the American company Blue Bottle in Ginza, Tokyo and Seoul.

In the bar in Ginza, the space in the basement is distinguished by the choice of white tiles for the floor, which diffuses light and dialogues with the oak wood and leather of the seats. In the Samcheongdong Cafe in Seoul, the bricks are laid dry, in continuity with the outside of the building. In the Ko-tu flagship, also in Tokyo, the conversion of the old roasting area into a new coffee space has smoothed the industrial touch by using oak wood seats and giving more vibration to the space with an LSL floor covered with colored resin. Lightness and fluidity remain at the heart of the three projects, making the atmosphere rarefied and at the same time more relaxed, conciliatory: "I responded to the brief by trying to soften the space with a soft atmosphere, far from the sharp trait that Blue Bottle coffees usually express".

The choice of coatings remains central to defining the identity of each store and at the same time to align it with a common language. "Each time I choose a different wood for each coffee, which I then use throughout the space." The iconic blue bottle, the famous pictogram of the American brand, maintains all its preeminence, although the layouts of projects in the Far East seem to claim a local approach to the relationship between brand and retail.