Commercial Spaces, Designed from Japan
Commercial Spaces,
Designed from Japan.
Restaurants, cafés, retail and hospitality projects overseas. Design direction led remotely from Tokyo, so the thinking behind the space stays Japanese, not just its surface.
United States / Europe / Middle East
Quiet materials, considered light, deliberate emptiness
What I Take On
Commercial First
Restaurants, Cafés, Bars
Izakaya, omakase counters, bakeries and coffee roasteries that want a Japanese sensibility rather than a Japanese costume.
Shops & Showrooms
Display logic, circulation and fixture design for spaces where the product and the room have to speak with one voice.
Hotels & Wellness
Guest rooms, lobbies, spa and treatment spaces built around stillness, bathing culture and the pacing of arrival.
Private residences are accepted selectively, for clients who genuinely want Japanese spatial thinking at the core of the house.
Not Japanese-looking.
Japanese-minded.
A commercial space abroad rarely needs more Japanese objects. It needs the way of thinking behind them: how light is allowed to fall, how a guest is slowed down at the entrance, what is deliberately left empty.
That is why I work from Japan. Staying here keeps me close to the craft, the materials and the culture the design comes from, and your project receives it directly rather than second hand.
Madori, First
Plan before finish. Seating rhythm, sightlines and back-of-house flow are settled before a single material is chosen.
Decided by Image
Mood boards and 3D renders carry the conversation, so language and time zones stop being the bottleneck.
Design Direction, Remotely
Concept, spatial planning, materials and lighting direction, delivered as drawings and visuals your local architect and contractor can build from. Construction documentation and site administration stay with your local team.
See How It WorksStep by Step, Transparent
Projects run in milestones. You review the work at each stage and release payment only once that stage is approved, whether we begin with one room or a whole venue.
Start a Conversation
Bringing a Space to Life Abroad?
chiakiuematsu.com
Tell me the city, the type of venue and roughly when you want to open. I will come back with how I would approach it.
Send an Inquiry
Chiaki Uematsu
Registered architect and interior architect based in Tokyo. Former design chief for the Nippon Budokan renovation for the Tokyo 2020 Games. UNDP mentor and architectural advisor to an international NPO. Works with commercial clients in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, translating Japanese spatial thinking into spaces built by local teams.
