NIEI is a porcelain store with a workshop where Mr. Niei (ceramist name) paints his Kiyomizu-Yaki-style ceramic works. 
As a traditional craftsman, Mr. Niei inherits advanced techniques and works to pass on the techniques to future generations. On the other hand, he pursues his own unique expression in his work, which has been highly acclaimed. 
He produces a wide variety of works, including pieces that add color to everyday life, pieces that emphasize traditional forms, and pieces that project the artist's personal worldview while using traditional techniques as the mainstay of his work. In this store, he focuses on those pieces that strongly express the artist's uniqueness.

We planned and executed its renovation to create a setting suitable for showing the artwork to guests, without changing its function as a store and workshop. 
Prior to the renovation, the interior had typical flooring and wallpaper, and a rather large wooden stile and rail door on the facade. It seemed there was not enough comfortable tension to place Niai's very delicate and elegant works of art. In order to reconcile this incongruity with minimal manipulation and investment, the objects to be renovated were examined in detail.
First, the existing flooring and wallpaper were stripped away, and the texture of the underlying floor and walls, with their accidental marks and flecks, was embraced as a wabi-like texture. Such background, with its low saturation, narrow tonality, and rough texture, contrasted with his works; the vivid, richly toned and finely textured vessels. The only new element, post-and-beam frame is added to the entire space, so that the space does not look like a mere demolition site, and that it shows a threshold where the vessels are exhibited. 
The frame was extended to the exterior façade, and the existing wooden fittings were replaced with tempered glass doors. We wanted to avoid a heavy framed door, but the industrial sharpness of the tempered glass cut-outs also seemed out of place in this storefront. 
The frame is extended to the exterior façade, replacing the existing wooden door frames. The glass pane is outlined with a slim frame, which is not necessary for its structure, with a postcard-size wooden handle attached to it. We would rather do so as neither existing bold wooden frame nor frameless tempered glass, which looks too industrial, seems to suit this store.
The shelves for exhibiting the vessels are made of 4m thick (250mm wide) steel flat bars, 9mm thick, fixed at both ends. Two 12x30mm flat bars, which also serve as indirect lighting covers, are welded to the back of the boards to keep deflection to an acceptable level. The shade of the pendant light suspended above the exhibition stand was painted so that the vessel that envelops the light and the vessel that receives the light correspond to each other. 

This small space (11.5m2 ca. 7 Tatamimat size) was created in collaboration with Mr. Niei, carpenters, and Mr. Ogawa of Koujin Design, while exchanging different ideas with each other. 
A number of fortunate connections and relationships worked well together: The carpenter's wife happened to have worked at the store before, a plasterer somehow managed to put bricks and joints in the mortar to repair the flooring for the entrance fixtures, and Mr. Ogawa served food at the opening reception.
It was such a pleasant working session.

translated by Tota Goya