The "L'Espoir Blanc” is a single house-shaped cafe and sweets shop in Okamoto Kobe-city. Seen from the street in front, an unobstructed view of the sky above Mt.Rokko is seen through the full-scale glass window on the third floor. No other building on this street is as open as this structure.
The building is made of two small white houses, connected orthogonally to the street by a green courtyard that allows natural light to flood into the open structure. The white houses create a kind of tunnel running from the north to the south with walls in the west protecting the shop from strong sunset light. Three pieces of skip-stop floors with a thin steel-frame make up the three-story concrete tunnel. Through the courtyard, people on the floors of two houses can exchange glances.
A kitchen on a contralateral half-basement across the courtyard can give guests an opportunity to take a look at the making of sweets through the roadside shop and courtyard. The shops are unified with a white color, bringing harmony to the brand concept, "blanc (white).” Ceilings, walls, floors, tables, and even chairs are painted with a special white, which was made of several types of white paints with different reflection and tone, reminiscent of the delicate touch of a picture surface.
The light from the north and south creates delicate temporal shadows on the surface of the white painted objects in the shop. Various whites from ceilings, walls, floors, tables, and chairs harmonize and blend in the light. Among them, only sweets appear to be floating above the white plate on the table. The interior and furniture have become a vast bowl for sweets.
Photo by Daici Ano
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