Ashiya Optical Store: Architecture Meets Interior Design

Merging Function with Visual Experience

The interior design of modern eyewear stores reflects a growing focus on the visitor experience, going beyond the traditional goal of merely displaying and selling products. In some cases, designers aim to create spaces where the process of service and product presentation becomes an integral part of the environment itself.

Focus on Architecture and Design

The owner’s interest in architecture plays a pivotal role in shaping the space, with every element considered in terms of both function and aesthetics. This approach allows the space to transform into a holistic experience, not limited to commerce but including the customer’s interaction with the environment as a key part of the shopping journey.

Moving Away from Traditional Planning

By departing from conventional designs, the store can offer a more intimate and engaging experience, where spaces are crafted to naturally and seamlessly highlight the relationship between products and visitors, with emphasis on flow and visual comfort throughout the environment.

Night view of Ashiya Optical Store interior with focused pendant lighting over triangular eyewear displays. — Strategic lighting placement emphasizes the architectural lines and enhances the individual presentation of each product. (Image © Yoshiro Masuda)

Wide shot of Ashiya Optical Store interior showing the relationship between display areas, seating, and concrete structural elements. — The design creates a balance between raw structural elements, like concrete pillars, and refined interior finishes. (Image © Yoshiro Masuda)

The Impact of Location on Design

This example demonstrates how a building’s location can directly influence its interior design. Placing the building in a quiet corner of the city provides an opportunity to create more private and serene spaces, away from the noise of main streets, enhancing the visitor experience and improving the flow of movement within the space.

The Relationship Between Exterior Layout and Interior Space

The multi-angled façade design reflects how the building adapts to its surroundings, whether aligning with roads or adjacent railway lines. These external considerations directly affect the distribution of interior spaces, requiring designers to handle dimensions and angles in a way that maximizes every available area while maintaining a sense of openness and comfort within the store.

Balancing Environment and Building

By studying the relationship between the external location and interior planning, designers can achieve a balance between the surrounding environment and the functions of the interior space. This approach helps integrate the building naturally into its context while ensuring the design remains both practical and aesthetically pleasing.

Architectural detail of a metal-clad column meeting the ceiling in Ashiya Optical Store. — Clean junctions and material continuity between the structural columns and display walls. (Image © Yoshiro Masuda)

Close-up of a minimalist metal triangular display table with eyewear collections in Ashiya Optical Store. — A detail of the custom-designed triangular display units that mimic the building’s external architecture within the interior space. (Image © Yoshiro Masuda)

Creating a Consistent Rhythm in the Space

Some interior designs aim to achieve a consistent visual rhythm, where the traditional separation between architecture and interior design is hardly noticeable. Through this approach, architectural elements become part of the daily user experience, and every corner and line is perceived as part of an integrated visual narrative.

Replicating Exterior Geometry Indoors

By using the multi-angled exterior wall structure as a model, the same geometry can be repeated inside the store with slight adjustments. This technique allows for the creation of interconnected and coordinated spaces, where the interior walls harmonize with the exterior structure, enhancing the sense of coherence and consistency throughout the space.

The Role of Interior Lines in Organizing Space

This process generates a network of interior lines that define partition walls and frame product display areas. Such an arrangement not only establishes clear boundaries but also guides visitor movement and improves product organization naturally, while maintaining smooth circulation and sightlines within the space.

Staff member interacting with a customer at a minimalist grey service counter in Ashiya Optical Store. — The service area is designed as an integral part of the environment, promoting an intimate and interactive shopping experience. (Image © Yoshiro Masuda)

Architecture as a Gradual Interior Element

This approach demonstrates how architectural characteristics can be gradually introduced into the interior space, making architecture a tangible part of the user experience. By repeating the distinctive angles of the exterior structure, visitors can recognize the identity of the place without the need for loud visual elements, allowing the interior design to become a natural extension of the architecture itself.

Guiding Visitor Interactions

The repeated interior angles help guide visitor movement and interaction within the space, forming natural pathways and sensory experiences throughout the store. This use of lines and angles enhances the sense of order and harmony, enabling customers to engage with the products in a manner consistent with the overall space, without relying on explicit signs or partitions.

Close-up of a raw concrete pillar contrasting with a smooth white ceiling and modern recessed lighting. — The juxtaposition of raw concrete and refined surfaces creates a balanced and calm spatial identity. (Image © Yoshiro Masuda)

Detail of square concrete floor tiles in Ashiya Optical Store providing a sense of structural stability. — Square concrete tiles are used to emphasize structural strength and provide a sense of coherence and discipline. (Image © Yoshiro Masuda)

Controlling Ceiling Height and Its Effect on Spatial Perception

In interior design, exposing the structural framework can influence a visitor’s sense of openness and dynamism within the space. However, fully revealing beams may create an excessive sense of roughness or weaken the spatial character. Therefore, carefully controlling the ceiling height serves as a means to balance openness and spatial calm, while maintaining the architectural identity of the place.

The Floor as a Tool to Express Architectural Strength

To reinterpret the structural strength of the interior without diminishing its character, floors can be used as both a visual and functional tool. For instance, adding square concrete tiles of uniform size helps emphasize architectural stability and instills a sense of cohesion and order within the space, while maintaining smooth circulation.

Balancing Raw and Refined Elements

This approach exemplifies how the raw presence of materials can be harmonized with organized architectural details, each enhancing the other. The result is a calm and balanced space that preserves the authenticity of the design without compromising visual comfort or internal harmony.

Exterior evening view of Ashiya Optical Store's glass entrance showing the internal layout and lighting. — The multi-angled facade adapts to its surroundings, influencing the internal spatial distribution and inviting visitors inside. (Image © Yoshiro Masuda)

Integrating Lighting with Interior Design

Lighting plays a pivotal role in enhancing the visitor experience within an interior space. Positioning lighting fixtures along the lines that define architecture and furniture can create visual harmony and cohesion among different elements. Using the same materials in both lighting fixtures and display units reinforces this harmony, fostering a sense of continuity throughout the space.

Small Details and Their Impact on Overall Impression

Even when lighting fixtures are compact, thoughtfully suspending them with wires can give the relationship between the light source and the space a sense of softness and fluidity, reducing visual rigidity and adding a subtle touch to the interior design.

Enhancing the Product Experience Within the Space

This approach helps integrate products seamlessly into the environment, allowing visitors to focus on each item individually. Such a design philosophy reflects a deliberate and focused experience, where every product can be appreciated with care and attention within the context of the overall space.

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

From an analytical perspective, the project demonstrates a clear focus on integrating architecture with interior design, providing consistent pathways and evident interaction between visitors and the space. This enhances the understanding of how interior geometry can guide movement and user experience. This aspect represents a positive point that can be leveraged in similar projects, particularly when studying the relationship between internal architectural angles and visual flow.

However, the project raises some questions regarding adaptability and future flexibility. For instance, the heavy reliance on repeated interior angles may limit possibilities for rearranging spaces or modifying their uses over time. Similarly, the careful control of ceiling height and concrete flooring imposes certain constraints on making substantial changes without affecting the visual character of the space. In addition, the strong harmony among interior elements may reduce opportunities to introduce new details or alternative product display methods without significant adjustments.

From a broader architectural perspective, the project can be considered a useful case study for understanding how architectural characteristics can be integrated into the visitor experience. At the same time, it highlights the importance of considering flexibility and diversity in design, allowing spaces to adapt to different needs without compromising overall harmony. In this way, the project offers a combination of practical lessons and critical observations valuable to both designers and architects.