y2kaestheticinstitute:Lounge Neo - Dogenzaka 2-21-7, Shibuya, Tokyo (2002-2019)“One of the things th
y2kaestheticinstitute:Lounge Neo - Dogenzaka 2-21-7, Shibuya, Tokyo (2002-2019)“One of the things that project designer Haruo Taguchi had in mind for this space was an impressive wall that greets you as soon as you leave the elevator (img. 3). Here he used a coated resin panel imported from America that sells under the product name ‘Fish Eyes’. Taguchi was strongly attracted to the material after seeing a magazine article about how Fish Eyes was used in the construction of the home pool for Lenny Kravitz’s residence. This lounge occupies the sixth and seventh floors of a building in the Maruyama-cho district of Shibuya, an area situated near Bunkamura, an up-market cultural complex five minutes from Shibuya station. The structure was erected in 1989 under the guidance of Jean-Michel Wilmotte. However, Maruyama-cho used to be a red-light district and even today there remain many `love hotels’ that specifically target couples. After 1990 many concert venues and clubs sprang up around here and some dozen of these are concentrated along a 50-metre street. This is an unusually happening place for Japan and makes Maruyama-cho one of the centres of Shibuya youth culture. In the same building there are four different clubs, all managed by the same company responsible for NEO: Vuenos, Club Asia P. Club Asia and Lounge NEO. It is mostly 18-25 year-olds who come to the other three venues which between them attract around 300,000 revellers every year. Building on its achievements and experience the company created NEO, targeting a crowd that ranges in age up to the 50s. NEO caters to the demand of older people who want a music-filled space in which to relax and let off steam late into the night but no longer have the energy to boogie until dawn. The adults who come to NEO have to wade through crowds of young people, but this is actually the intentional. The design conjures up nostalgia for disco, and disco parties are often held here.”Designed by Haruo Taguchi - Scanned from ‘Design City Tokyo’ (2004) -- source link