Tanuki Noboru Building
Tanuki Noboru Building
Tanuki Noboru Building
Tanuki Noboru Building
Tanuki Noboru Building
Tanuki Noboru Building
Tanuki Noboru Building
Tanuki Noboru Building
Tanuki Noboru Building
In most malls, more is more. A scaled-back, refined design experience is rare, and storefronts often bombard customers with eye-grabbing graphics and in-your-face facades. On Tanuki Koji Shopping Street, a 900-metre covered arcade in the heart of Sapporo, wayfinding design firm Motive Inc., alongside the Takenaka Corporation, has orchestrated an atypical retail experience marked by restraint and purposeful sophistication. Their Tanuki Noboru Building carves out breathing room in the busy public plaza thanks to its minimal yet highly effective visual language.
The open atrium brings in natural light (precious in snowy Sapporo) and invites customers to explore a more relaxed user experience. Mirroring the slanted angles of the stone flooring, flow lines made of whitened joints between pavement tiles appear as rays of light to pull pedestrian attention deeper into the interior. Inside, the illuminated lines continue from the elevators to each floor, where rebar — sourced from the same iron crosspieces used to fix the formwork during the building’s construction — is re-used for signage and graphic elements.
While restrained, the design packs in potent symbolism. Inspired by the Japanese myth of the mischievous, shape-shifting tanuki (raccoon dogs), the wooden restroom signage appears completely different when viewed from the front versus the side. Tanuki Noboru’s logo itself — the hiragana character ru (る) — is a stylized portrait of a transformed tanuki playing hide-and-seek. Rich with storytelling, Motive Inc.’s graphic design scheme stays true to the firm’s name — in a pragmatic yet poetic style that truly understands user motivation.
Team: Takuya Wakizaki and Takuya Chiba (Motive Inc.) with Kazuho Takashima (Takenaka Corporation)
An atypical retail experience marked by restraint and purposeful sophistication.
