OntheBRINK

Various retail shops by AZB, a Japanese architecture firm headed by Etto Francisco Ohashi & Takamaro Kouji Ohashi (1999-2000)

“Austere, cool and futuristic, α-compiler looks like a spaceship that’s just landed on the pages of a Japanese sci-fi manga. Clad in easy-maintenance FRP (fibre-reinforced plastic), the off-white building steals the show in downtown Akita. AZB wanted to create an ultra-simple form with no superfluous details and, using the traditional culture of Japan as a point of departure, to sketch an image of the future. Automatic sliding entrance doors that slant backwards are, according to the designers, the first of their kind in Japan. Most display units on the first floor are made of stainless steel, including the honeycomb shelves. Certain units are incorporated into the surface of the floor, while others resembling large illuminated refrigerators line the walls. Everything is rounded and soft.”