G ARCHITECTS STUDIO brings a vivid patina accent to this cozy café stand in kyoto

SUETOMI aoq cafe stand by g architects studio opens in kyoto 

Located on the ground floor of a two-story building, the AoQ Cafe Stand has opened for business on a major street in Kyoto. G ARCHITECTS STUDIO completed the design for a new brand (AoQ) established by the Japanese confectionery shop SUETOMI. While relatively modest in size, the coffee stand quickly grabs passersby’s attention with its copper-clad silhouette and striking patina accent — a nod to SUETOMI’s corporate color for the past seventy years.

To compensate for the small site area, ‘the depth of the coffee stand is only about 1 meter and is so small and modest that it can almost be missed in the busy street. Since the depth of it is so shallow, we were quickly able to decide on the floor plan. The kitchen and the resting area were installed side by side, along the street in the front,’ shares the practice.

all images © Daisuke Shima, courtesy of G ARCHITECTS STUDIO

chemically altering copper to create a striking facade

Although the floor plan was decided upon almost automatically, the team at G ARCHITECTS STUDIO had to spend more time agreeing on what to do with the elevations. After examining the length of the main facade and following the confectionary shop’s brand image, the copper facade underwent a controlled chemical intervention. This required taping copper foil on the wall and oxidizing it with soy sauce and chemicals — resulting in a rusty brown shade punctuated by a vivid patina tone. Besides nodding to the brand’s blue color, the SUETOMI AoQ Cafe Stand also serves as a signpost leading visitors to the confectionary shop‘s main store, only three minutes by foot.

SUETOMI AoQ Cafe Stand in Kyoto

‘The patina color was used in two areas: the eye-catching side facing the intersection, as well as in the resting area. Cityscape regulations control the use of facade colors except on natural materials. […] We adequately used soy sauce to slowly let the copper corrode, generating the reddish brown color, as well as ammonium chloride to quickly let the copper corrode, generating the patina color. Without these substances, and if the copper had only been exposed to wind and rain, it would have taken about three months to achieve this reddish brown color, and ten years to get the patina color,’ explains the team. 

located on the ground floor of a two-story building

When the cafe closes for the day, the patina-coated seating area gets covered with a roll screen made of a mesh sheet originally used for the temporary scaffold of building construction. ‘When it is lit at night, it resembles a bamboo blind historically used by Japanese noble families, which lets you see through to the patina color on the wall. It functions as a ‘street lamp’ for pedestrians and as a billboard for the store,’ concludes G ARCHITECTS STUDIO. 

corroding copper foil to create a vivid patina hue

G ARCHITECTS STUDIO used ammonium chloride to generate the patina shade

main facade view of the SUETOMI AoQ Cafe Stand

soy sauce was used to create the reddish brown alteration

project info:

name: SUETOMI AoQ Cafe Stand 

location: Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto, Japan 

architecture studio: G ARCHITECTS STUDIO | @garchi.info

lead architects: Ryohei Tanaka, Kazuki Nishimura

branding: Kazunari Kitagawa, Masayoshi Zenigame / GRAPH

graphic designers: Kazunari Kitagawa, Masatoshi Yoshimoto / GRAPH

landscape architect: Akihiro Ogino / Ogino Ogino Landscape Design
fabric: Makino Horiguchi / fab-
lighting designer: Mariko Hayashi / Modulex
construction: Yoshida Interior

photographer: Daisuke Shima