2013 BOY Winner: Food/Drink Retail

Firm: Moriyuki Ochiai Architects
Project: Dream Dairy Farm
Location: Chiba, Japan
Photography: Atsushi Ishida/Nacása & Partners

Simple, full of subtle variations, and quintessentially Japanese in a creative use of limited ingredients, tofu is the central design metaphor for Moriyuki Ochiai’s young firm. But there’s no bean curd in sight at this high-end retail outlet, where a sleekly playful farm-fresh theme rules the roost. Suspended from the ceiling of the 925-square-foot space, sculptures built from milk-white panels of polycarbonate or shaped from strips of recycled aluminum flank closely spaced sheets of clear acrylic, a material often used for the roofs of cowsheds.

Paint in graduated shades of green gives the walls an air of pastures or forests. Rustic flooring is sugar maple the color of the cake that’s sold here, along with milk, yogurt, soft-serve ice cream, candy, and bread. In the center of the floor, the molded solid-surfacing of the main counter ripples like pudding.