This pop-up Starbucks coffee shop in Tokyo by Japanese design studio Nendo was designed like a library, where customers ordered drinks by taking books to the counter (+ slideshow).
Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined the curved interior walls of the shop and were filled with books with nine different coloured covers, to represent each of the drinks being served.
Customers were invited to read about different types of coffee from the cover sleeves of the otherwise empty books, before exchanging one at the counter for a corresponding drink.
With their coffee, each customer was also given the sleeve to keep, which they could use to customise their own Starbucks takeaway flask.
"The 'library' invites visitors to choose an espresso drink as they would a book, and verse themselves in espresso drinks as though quietly entering into a fictional world," says Nendo. "Books and coffee are both important parts of everyday life, so we created a link between favourite books and favourite coffees."
The shop was installed at the start of September in the Omotesando neighbourhood and was open for just three weeks.
Other Starbucks branches we've featured include one close to a Shinto shrine elsewhere in Japan and one inside a historic bank vault in the Netherlands.
We've also published a few Nendo projects lately, including an installation of chairs during the London Design Festival and a woodland nesting box, as well as a collection of watches that we're now stocking at Dezeen Watch Store.
See all our stories about Nendo »
Photography is by Daici Ano, apart from where otherwise stated.
Above: photograph is by Hiroshi Iwasaki
Above: photograph is by Hiroshi Iwasaki
Above: photograph is by Hiroshi Iwasaki
While the exterior envelope and interior program is interesting and enthralling, the sheer waste of resources to push a simple concept forward is idiotic. There are much better ways to establish a conceptual connection between coffee and books.
A 3 week long installation!!!? Where do all the materials etc. go after this 3 weeks? Yes it is a beautiful space and interesting concept, but I am left with an even larger dislike for this mega chain now. This is the type of large franchise that should be leading the way with thoughtful design, trying to reduce their impact, not generating more waste.
Shame on you Starbucks.
EC. quite true. But just to salvage some green positive vibes in you. I find this quite inspiring in a sense of how the culture of ‘acquiring’ one’s coffee can be a curated experience. Imagine if we look at design in a larger scale. We could design something as interesting (and possibly viral) as this into the rituals of people’s everyday lives. Imagine biodegradable cigarette butts with hidden seeds help plant seeds with people’s selfish act of littering in parks.
Possibilities are endless. Lets reap all the goodness.
On that note, I hate Starbucks.
Starshite – bad coffee deserves no support. And drinking it in an asylum – mmm no thanks.