Project Name: Tsubame Stand

Location: Ikoma, Nara, Japan

Design Team: Kichi Archi

Total Floor Area: 98 m²

Completion: 2025

Photography: Megumi Takimagari

Design Features:

Project - Tsubame Stand occupies a 98-square-metre unit within Green Hill Ikoma, a commercial complex completed in 1982 as Nara Prefecture's first urban redevelopment project. Designed by Shiro Kameoka of Kichi Archi, the standing bar is conceived as a catalyst for neighbourhood revitalisation, drawing young professionals, local residents, and mountain hikers into a welcoming, animated space that aspires to restore the building's former vitality and serve as a hub for emerging youth culture.

The facade represents the project's most arresting compositional gesture. Referencing the grand torii gate of the nearby Hozanji Temple, Kameoka strips the entrance to its essential elements: a playful illustrated noren curtain and a single layer of translucent vinyl sheeting. The result is a threshold that is simultaneously legible and approachable, offering pedestrians an unobstructed view of the lively interior and actively lowering the psychological barrier to entry.

The interior is anchored by a U-shaped counter wrapping the open kitchen, set against a raw exposed concrete backdrop. Circular tables are distributed freely across the floor, encouraging spontaneous rearrangement by guests and reinforcing the convivial, unscripted character of the standing-bar typology. The project's most inventive detail emerged from a sustained debate during the design process over whether seating was necessary at all: climbing rope strung along the counter provides a perch that is simultaneously ergonomically functional and visually arresting. The rope silhouettes evoke a row of swallows settled on a telephone wire, a poetic echo of the venue's name and of the real swallow nests the building's owner has long preserved in the shared corridors above.

Tsubame Stand demonstrates how architecturally precise, materially disciplined design can transform a modest neighbourhood bar into a powerful symbol of community renewal.

Design Team - Founded in 2025 and based in Gakuenmae, Nara, Kichi Archi is led by principal architect Shiro Kameoka. The practice takes its name from its original 25-square-metre studio, a deliberate starting point that continues to inform the firm's ethos of extracting spatial richness from constraint.

Kameoka brings over two decades of professional experience to the practice. Born in Nara in 1978, he graduated from the Graduate School of Science and Technology at the Kyoto Institute of Technology in 2003 and subsequently joined Asai Ken Architectural Research Inc., where he spent 22 years contributing to a technically and typologically diverse portfolio spanning hospitality, large-scale commercial, collective residential, and office projects across Japan and Vietnam. Major projects include Kobe Suma Sea World Hotel, Kirarito Ginza, and Roygent Parks Hai Phong.

Positioning itself at the intersection of local identity and international sensibility, Kichi Archi pursues a practice it defines as Glocal Design, channelling the cultural depth of historic Nara while actively engaging with global architectural discourse. The firm offers comprehensive architectural services encompassing programming, schematic design, construction documentation, and site supervision, alongside interior design commissions. Every project is approached as an opportunity to embed meaning, utility, and quiet delight into the fabric of everyday life.