Destination Osaka: in the year of Expo 2025, a world store
A few days before the opening of the Universal Exhibition, a boutique that creates urban connections by interweaving coffee, plants, tablewear and minimal Japanese clothing.
by Lisa Corva
2' min read
2' min read
Around 150 participating countries and more than 28 million visitors are expected. And a title that looks far ahead, Designing Future Society for Our Lives: this is the theme chosen for theOsaka Expo 2025, opening on 13 April (until 13 October) on the artificial island of Yumeshima. A theme that Biotop, the store-world based in Osaka - but also in Tokyo and Fukuoka -, sums up perfectly: it is a shop, but also a cafeteria, and offers flowers and plants alongside sweatshirts and trainers.
The interior was designed by the Suppose Design Office in Hiroshima: the architects describe their projects in such delicate terms that they sound like haiku, the short Japanese poetic poems, and for Biotop in Osaka they chose as the title (because all their work has a title), Junction with the cityscape. Firstly because Biotop is located at a crossroads, and secondly because "the name suggests a space that encloses a living ecosystem, and in fact it is a mixed-use concept store. The neighbourhood where it is located, Minamihorie, was traditionally home to furniture production, but then the large commercial buildings built around the Umeda train station overshadowed the street-level commerce.
The shop, on the other hand, has re-injected energy into the neighbourhood after renovation. The ground floor is surrounded by the lush greenery of the plant and flower section. The café is in the corner and invites interaction. The ground floor and the first floor focus on clothing, self-care and lifestyle, while on the roof there is a green bistro. We wanted to create a fluid transition from the inside to the outside, from the private to the public, offering the possibility of new kinds of experiences, creating continuity between things that are considered separate. And thus also draw a line from the clothes you wear to the coffee you sip, to the plants around you: for a new urban landscape".
In the shop you can find the romantic looks of Danish Cecilie Bahnsen, the knitted tops and sweaters of Austrian Christina Seewald (from EUR 220). The Row's luxury bags by American twins Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen (from €3,300). And, of course, some Japanese brands to discover: Comoli's destructured jackets (from €500), A. Presse's timeless garments and hoodies (from €280), Eyevan's sunglasses, visvim's casual look. Then Aeta, a minimalist brand of leather accessories and backpacks (from 190 euro) from Osaka itself, Porter Yoshida's jap backpacks (from 400 euro) and Sunsea for ultra-light trench coats (from 400 euro).
For an immersion in fragrances, there are the Carte d'Armenia by Officina di Santa Maria Novella, for use in hotel rooms. The fragrances of Perfumer H, by the English Lyn Harris: a convenient travel collection of five different small bottles, with evocative names such as Ink, Raincloud, Smoke (156 euro). But also the Korean suggestions of Nonfiction (perfume EUR 123; hand cream EUR 19). If you are travelling and have forgotten your pyjamas, there are those by Tekla, in soft cotton (from 300 euros). For walking the labyrinths of the Expo, Birkenstock and Converse (from 87 euros, with a dedicated Biotop collection). And you are ready to go out and discover new crossroads of urban landscapes.
