Masamichi Katayama’s design firm WONDERWALL creates the world’s premier retail environments; the experiential spaces that Katayama and his brain trust produce are nothing short of mesmerizing. Have you been in a BAPE or Uniqlo store, perhaps even a Dean and Deluca in Japan? Yeah, that’s all them. Watch the above video from Tyler Brule and BBC and check the photos below. Everytime I feel like I know what to expect from them, they flip the script entirely: they suck me right back in. No one on the planet knows how to use reflective metal surfaces like WONDERWALL. I’d love to take a spin in the swiriling breezes of their design vacum…
From the Wonderwall site:
Founded in 2000, Masamichi Katayama, founder of interior design firm Wonderwall, elicits an uninhibited sense of energy towards design even in Japan, where architecture and interior design is known for being one of the most exhilarating in the world. Katayama’s interest in design has always been broad, respecting conventional and traditional aspects of architecture, while believing in breaking boundaries. A “total concept” designer, Katayama’s intensions are focused in creating an environment that would touch the subconscious of the consumer and occupant.
While the firm is best known for retail design, Wonderwall has extensively built a wide range of pursuits in design including architectural direction, and product design. His work has expanded to Japan, Hong Kong, China, Russia, France, England and the United states. In 2007, Katayama was honoured as the ‘Interior Design Firm of the Year’ through The Great Indoors Award, a biennial international interior design award. (The Netherlands/Mr. Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of International Jury).
In 2008, his second monograph “Wonderwall Masamichi Katayama Projects No.2″ (Frame Publishers) was launched in September at specialty boutique colette in Paris, which was redesigned by Wonderwall, followed by the rest of Europe, the United States, and then Japan.
