Prolific Japanese studio nendo has designed the Beauty Library, a concept store that consists of a specialty boutique for organic cosmetics and a café, tucked away on a street behind Aoyama-Street, Tokyo. For a woman to enhance her beauty, a close linkage between inner and outer body care is required. Nendo therefore designed a service and space based on a concept that fuses to the maximum the features of cosmetics with food & drink.
One is able to leaf through information on various products using a tablet and casually try out every single product in the store as if ordering a beverage, while enjoying your drink and food that enhances beauty from within. What’s more, QR codes are placed alongside each product, which enables customers to take home the information about that product on their mobile device and purchase them online later. In this way, the store not only sells cosmetic products, but is also a place where knowledge relating to them can be obtained. Therefore it can be described as a “library” like space with well-organized wooden shelves.
Moreover, a “self-study room” feature was added amongst the shelves, with in-built café tables and bracket lights. The logo was designed to give an image of a square bookshelf filled with letters. In addition an “annex” hidden across the courtyard was designed so as not to just function as a café, but as a space that can serve as a party room, and hold small events and workshops.
all images © Takumi Ota