Japanese Cake Shop With Rotating 45° Spaces Offers A Unique Cafe Experience In An Ancient Forest

Called 45°, this unique cakeshop and café was designed by TAKUYAHOSOKAI and is located in Niigata, Japan. The structure is crafted to harmonize with its natural surroundings, featuring rotating spaces set at 45-degree angles. This unconventional orientation challenges traditional layouts, creating a disorienting yet intriguing experience that blurs the lines between the café’s interior and the adjacent forest.

Nestled within a sprawling, ancient forest covering 4,500 square meters, the site boasts gently sloping terrain, scattered trees, and dappled sunlight. This tranquil setting provides a peaceful backdrop, enhancing the café’s immersive experience. The building is elevated from the ground and offers views that connect visitors with the natural environment. The design captures the essence of the changing seasons, delivering a dynamic and engaging architectural experience, and adding a truly unique and refreshing perspective to the cafe culture.

Designer: TAKUYAHOSOKAI Studio

TAKUYAHOSOKAI Studio designed the structure to seamlessly blend interior and exterior spaces by extending or shifting walls, slabs, and frames to eliminate distinct boundaries. While defined by structural elements, each material retains its purity, highlighted at the intersections where walls, slabs, and frames converge. The use of large volumes minimizes the dominance of glass, further dissolving the line between the inside and outside. The rotating spaces establish four axes, creating discrepancies between the layout and structural frames. This design results in an environment where visitors experience a sense of ambiguous orientation, enhancing their immersion in the surroundings.

The architecture employs simple yet effective 45-degree rotations to develop a complex and organic form. This design mirrors the natural movement of trees reaching skyward, with the structure appearing to grow and stretch alongside the forest. Initially, the space stands out as distinct and separate from its environment. And then, over time, it gradually integrates with the surrounding landscape, almost vanishing into it. This seamless blending into the natural surroundings highlights the design’s ability to harmonize with nature, enhancing the aesthetic and experiential quality of the space while maintaining its unique architectural identity.

Built with traditional Japanese wooden construction techniques, the building is engineered to endure snow loads, accommodating a 1.0-meter snow depth due to its location in Niigata City. The structure features a diverse framework, with the second floor reinforced by joist beams to support substantial loads.

The entrance canopy boasts a cantilevered design, supported by flat beams, ensuring stability against the area’s harsh weather conditions. The structural plan is both simple and varied, applying distinctive frameworks across different floor plans and elevations. This approach blends tradition with practicality, ensuring resilience and functionality in a challenging environment.