P-Dogs Shop
location : Koenji Station, Tokyo, Japan
complete year : 1998
usage : pop-up shop
structure : steel, glass
architect : Shinya Satoh
built by students at Kanto Gauin University
photographs : Katsuhisa Kida
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Many retail outlets in Japan are housed in subterranean shopping malls close to stations. This postcard shop (now demolished) occupied a small lot within such a mall adjoining Koenji Station in western Tokyo.
A glass wall was designed to define the shop footprint within the rented mall space. By attaching clear polycarbonate shelves to the inside of the glass walls the displayed postcards could be viewed from both inside and outside of the shop. The architectural design was carried out by Shinya Sato of Nihon University. To keep costs down the assembly of was carried out by Sato’s students working together with Alan Burden’s students from Kanto Gakuin University.
The four walls form a square rotated slightly relative to the outline of the allocated mall space. Three equally sized toughened glass plates form three of the walls, and two form the wall containing the entrance. A steel frame attached to the top of the sheets connects all of the elements together to ensure lateral stability. Fail-safe performance is provided in the case of one glass sheet being broken by the presence of at least two sheets in each wall.
