30/06/2009

Press

On the corner of a small intersection in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Parisians stop and stare quizzically, peering through the windows of a shop. This serenely surreal vision represents a couple of firsts: the first project completed in France by Kengo Kuma & Associates and the Jugetsudo tea salon's first location ooutside Japan.

Jugetsudo, which means a place to watch the moon, is the brand of green teas launched by Maruyama nori, a 155-year-old family-run Tokyo company specializing in edible dried seaweed. The fonder's great-great-granddaugter Maki MARUYAMA, director of the Paris salon, asked Kuma for a design both contemporary and traditional, in harmony with nature and the Zen spirit of the Japanese tea ceremony. The ambiance was to encourage "not only the selling of tea but also cordial communication with coustomers," Kengo Kuma says.

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