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Hender Scheme
Kuamae
Tokyo Hender Scheme opened its Kuramae office and showroom in Tokyo’s Taito district as a reimagined space that blurs the boundary between workplace, atelier, and retail environment. Designed by DDAA (Daisuke Motogi Architecture Atelier), the project is housed in a 1960s concrete building and reflects the brand’s commitment to material honesty, tactility, and the quiet beauty of everyday objects.

At the heart of the design is a set of self-imposed constraints—what DDAA describes as “rules” rather than styles. These include exposing the raw edges of materials with minimal finishing, avoiding artificial coloring, and treating opposing elements—such as front and back, industrial and handmade, cheap and refined—as equal. In doing so, the space becomes a physical translation of Hender Scheme’s philosophy: a pursuit of balance through contrast, a reverence for imperfection, and a belief in the poetic potential of the mundane.

The interiors feature hand-treated concrete walls, open shelving made from grey polymer wood, and mirror-glass partitions that deliberately reveal their unpolished backsides. Electrical cables are not hidden but fastened visibly with vegetable-tanned leather straps, offering a tactile reminder of the craftsmanship embedded in the brand’s leather goods. In the meeting space, chairs are wrapped in untreated leather—one of Hender Scheme’s signature materials—inviting users to witness its slow transformation over time. This consistent material language, rooted in touch and wear, creates a sensory continuity between the space and the products it holds.

This environment does not present the leather accessories and footwear as isolated luxury items, but as thoughtful extensions of daily life—practical yet refined, designed to age with grace. Just like the showroom’s unfinished edges and visible joints, the products embrace patina, irregularity, and narrative. Every shelf, every exposed seam in the architecture echoes the brand’s ethos: beauty lies not in perfection, but in honest use.

The result is a space that fosters slow observation. Visitors are not led by spotlighting or spectacle but by the tactile pull of materials—by textures they want to reach out and touch. The showroom becomes a kind of tactile archive, where the architecture doesn’t perform, but supports. It invites customers to relate to the products on human terms: through use, memory, and time. In this way, the Hender Scheme Kuramae space transcends conventional retail. It becomes not only a place to view objects, but a space that teaches how to live with them.


https://www.archdaily.com/980170/hende-scheme-kuramae-office-ddaa
https://leibal.com/interiors/hender-scheme-kuramae/
https://www.stirworld.com/see-features-ddaa-s-hender-scheme-showroom-exposits-the-adage-god-is-in-the-details