Shiny aluminium, washi paper details and a reflective ceiling decorate this colour-saturated lounge in Tokyo, which local studio I IN designed at department store Matsuya Ginza.

The VIP lounge has a white colour palette with details picked out in Edo purple – a deep purple hue that holds historical significance in Japan and used to be associated with nobility.

The lounge is located at the Matsuya Ginza department store

“Edo purple was chosen as a subtle yet profound accent – a tone of quiet strength and dignity,” I IN co-founder Hiromu Yuyama told Dezeen.

“Against the luminous white that defines the space, it conveys both modernity and the timeless grace of Japanese aesthetics.”

Visitors first enter via a reception with a modernist design

The studio wanted the 348-square-metre Ginza Lounge to have a modern, luxurious feel. Located in the Matsuya Ginza store in central Tokyo, it will be reserved for the store’s VIP customers, as well as JCB cardholders.

“The project set out to express a new form of Japanese luxury – one that feels light, refined and attuned to the next generation,” Yuyama said.

“In Ginza, where tradition and innovation coexist, we sought to create a space where calmness and vitality quietly intersect.”

One room was completely covered in Edo purple

To do so, I IN used a variety of reflective and glossy materials, including aluminium tables and lacquered walls and ceilings.

“Ginza, a city defined by tsuya – gloss – inspired us to work with materials that capture light and emotion,” Yuyama explained.

The shiny surfaces were contrasted with more tactile natural materials, while the almost all-white interior helps bring light into the lounge.

“Polished aluminium, hinoki cypress and softly illuminated washi surfaces together translate Ginza’s radiance into architecture, turning light itself into the material of the space,” Yuyama said.

Purple sofas and rugs contrast with white walls

Visitors enter via a modernist reception space with a marble desk and shoji screens, which leads into a relaxing lounge section with purple sofas and steel tables.

At the end of the lounge, a room entirely painted in Edo purple houses a larger table for meetings, a lacquered red display case and more lounge chairs and sofas.

Shoji screens divide the spaces

Sliding shoji screens with washi-paper panels were used throughout to delineate the different spaces, while geometric paper lamps and abstract paintings add a modern touch to the space.

Other recent Tokyo projects by I IN include a Blue Bottle Coffee cafe in Takanawa and a “living lounge” in the reception of a museum building.

The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.

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