Neglected Pool In Tokyo Gets A New Life As An Urban Concept Store

A pool that used to host resident swimmers of an apartment building in one of Tokyo’s wealthiest districts, Aoyama,  is now hosting freshly designed trendy clothes in a store set up inside of it. Swimming is not allowed.

The store named by the space that inhabits, The Pool Aoyama, opened it’s doors in April and is housed in a vintage 1970s pool that used to be a recreational space for the residents of the apartment building. Throughout the renovation process designers Nobuo Araki from The Archetype and fashion guru Hiroshi Fujiwara tried to maintain the space as raw as possible  and although there has been some reconstruction done, the feeling of the pool is still very present in the newly rebuild space.

The floor’s glass platform gives a feeling of the water that dominated the space in the past, the racks resemble the holding pipes in the swimming pool and even the pool’s ladder has been given another chance. The walls were left untouched and the toilets were turned into fitting cabins. And beware of the entrance, because you might easily miss it.

The Pool Aoyama is a great example of ecological architecture, that leaves the old to breath within the new and sets up a space that not only looks good but also has a story to tell.