The Hakodate Sensyuan Sohonke Café in Japan, designed by Jo Nagasaka + Schemata Architects seamlessly merges Japanese and Western elements, transforming a historic wooden storehouse into a modern café that honors local heritage.
Nestled within Motomachi, a district renowned for its eclectic blend of Japanese and Western architectural styles, the café reimagines a traditional wooden storehouse by integrating unexpected yet thoughtful Western elements. The project's guiding principle lies in extending the language of the city's historical brickwork—a material typically reserved for facade embellishments—into the heart of the structure, blurring the boundaries between exterior and interior, heritage and innovation.
The designers approached the renovation with a sensitivity that honors the building’s original character while introducing subtle interventions that resonate with the cultural fabric of Hakodate. By extending the brick into the interior, they transformed a functional material into a dynamic medium that interacts with the space. The brick not only forms the café’s counters and benches but also subtly references the shaku module, a traditional Japanese measurement, grounding the design in the local architectural vernacular. This method of cutting and raising the brickwork ensures that the Western element is not merely an overlay but is integrated into the structure's very essence.
This interplay of brick and wood, of Western and Japanese influences, creates a harmonious dialogue between the old and the new. The café becomes a microcosm of Hakodate’s broader architectural narrative, where disparate cultural elements are woven into a cohesive whole. By retaining the familiar facade of the Sensyuan confectionery while subtly reconfiguring its interior, Nagasaka and Schemata have created a space that is both reflective of Hakodate's unique history and responsive to contemporary needs.
