FORUS | Masaru Ito

In recent years, I have been working on designing the whole environment of Himeji FORUS (AEON group) including exterior of the building. This time I participated in the renovation project.  Since I designed for ISSEY MIYAKE MEN in Himeji FORUS as a tenant’s shop designer more than 10 years ago, I have been designing for other FORUS buildings as well.

After receiving the offer, I visited the site for the first time in years. There used to be many people in Omizo Street centered on FORUS as a symbol of urban fashion in Himeji, but I realized there is much less people in the street now.

Therefore, the building needed to have a clear impact on the people in the distance who walk in Miyuki Street, the main street of Himeji. However, even if the exterior of the building can give strong impression on the people in the distance, the old shopping arcade of the building will be an obstacle in the close distance. So I decided to create the impressive arcade, apart from the building.

After a few design meetings, I decided to install curved fins on the about 100m long shopping arcade including the East Building to produce continuity, and set indirect lightings between the fins to generate shading to highlight unique form and give creative image. This work produced texture and modernness appropriate for Himeji, the castle town.

The eye-catching inside part of the arcade was exclusively occupied by some specific tenants. Therefore, something special to lead visitors further into the arcade was necessary. I installed the big pendant light on the open ceiling zone at the end of the East Building to create the space where visitors will be interested in even from the distance. I also installed the FORUS’s icon shaped lights on the wall to produce more brightness so that people on the exterior sidewalk can be impressed when they peek inside.