Jo Nagasaka of Schemata Architects Envisions a Recyclable Space for a Tokyo Store

Designers have a natural tendency to imagine their work enduring far into the future. But for a 3,000-square-foot Camper store in Shanghai, Jo Nagasaka took the opposite approach. The Schemata Architects founder acknowledged that someday the shoe shop, which itself is in a redeveloped French settlement from the early 20th century, would be dismantled and replaced with something else. So, Nagasaka envisioned a space that would itself be “recyclable.”

It’s Schemata’s second store for Camper, following one in Tokyo in 2017 that used imported cork and urethane rubber. But this three-level location embraces locally available plywood and cardboard made of repurposed Camper shoeboxes originally made with plant-based glue. Nagasaka was struck by the ease of recycling cardboard, which requires simply dissolving it in water and reshaping the pulp. “Something that we take for granted in our daily lives turned out to be an ideal material” he says. Turns out cardboard is anything but boring.