Interview with KEISUKE NAKAMURA/ DAIKEI MILLS —part 1
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Looking ahead to the chaotic future of Tokyo, we decided to start SKWAT
— Keisuke Nakamura / DAIKEI MILLS
photography : Daisuke Shima
words : Reiji Yamakura/IDREIT
Independent project called “SKWAT” is currently getting attention from those involved in fashion and design in Tokyo. The idea of SKWAT was conceived by Keisuke Nakamura, a director of Tokyo based design studio Daikei Mills. With Nakamura's offer, Atsushi Hamanaka of twelvebooks, an art book distributor, and others have joined the board of SKWAT and developing the movement.
The name SKWAT originated from “Squatting”, the act of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, which Nakamura saw during his student time in London. We have interviewed Nakamura about the path of SKWAT that began at a tiny house in Harajuku back in December, 2019.
Keisuke Nakamura and the team started an activity named ‘SKWAT’ in a small house in Jingumae, renovating a small house between buildings. Vivid blue was used for the interior and exterior.
— Could you tell me what the trigger was for you to start the project named SKWAT?
It had been about 10 years since we’ve started our design studio DAIKEI MILLS, but as the scope of design got broader during these years, we also felt that our own colours had set in over time in both good and bad ways, and since from roughly 2 years ago we’d been thinking about what our future course of direction should be like.
When designing, I usually think outside the box of architecture or interior designs, but by taking one more step further, I had been searching for a way to design something with a more critical expression.
One day, I came up with the idea to spontaneous work out expressions based not on designworks for my clients, but rather on strong concepts that I own. And then we're trying to build up a group of people who agree with us.
-- Is squatting one of the strong concepts that you came up with?
Yes. The core subject for us Daikei Mills is to create a fabulous space. From long time ago I had been attracted to the act of creating a space that are not related to categories like architecture, design, or modern art. Also, I have this desire inside of me to pursue a pure expression. I did both the projects at my design studio and the operation of the alternative space called “Vacant” (2009 - 2019) for 10 years in total, but when I considered about realising pure expressions based on these experiences, it connected the dot with the Squatting that I saw in the past.
I did both the projects at my design studio and the operation of the alternative space called “Vacant” (2009 - 2019) for 10 years in total, but when I considered about realising pure expressions based on these experiences, it connected the dot with the Squatting that I saw in the past. Looking ahead to the chaotic future of Tokyo, we decided to start SKWAT.
— It is quite fascinating that you focused on the style called squatting, which is impossible to do in modern Tokyo. Also, It's typical of you Mr Nakamura that you created the place yourself, rather than being asked to do so by the client.
We thought that if we create the space, then people who can sympathize with our ideas will come together, and that can lead us to do even more creative activities.
But then the purpose of SKWAT is not in the creation of places, but in doing the conceptual activity like “occupying” a town, and this activity itself is our expression.
One of the backgrounds into beginning this project was to do with the recent situation of Tokyo city. Today, the number of large commercial complexes built in inner city areas had increased, and I think the world is full of things that are well calculated to fit into the mainstream that I call “marketing theory of pre-established harmony”. In this modern society where it is difficult for an independent person to declare something, or create a long lasting impact, I wanted to take some action as a countermeasure against the mainstream.
— The location chosen for the first SKWAT was quite unique, but how did you find it?
Even though this project was created out of the idea of Squatting, we did not intend to do anything illegal, so I’ve requested real estate agencies to help me find a property right in the middle of Tokyo that could make me think “What the…!”, and that search took a half year. What I’ve finally found was this house that used to be a dry cleaning shop. It is located in the Harajuku, Jingumae area with well-known boutiques around, and I’ve made a prompt decision to take this house when I saw and fell in love with its view with small prefabs in between the buildings.
SKWAT collaborated with an artbook distributor twelvebooks to operate as a bookstore ‘Thousandbooks.’
In response to the concept of communicating the value of art books, a photograph of the ‘Strahov Monastery Library’ was printed on the wallpaper.
— Why did you use the blue colour for the interior and exterior design?
Squatting in the UK has this graphic feeling of “illegal occupation” to it, but I wanted to express that feeling in the form of designs. To do that, we chose bright blue for this property including the exterior walls, so that we can strongly appeal to people walking around the town.
— What did you do in the inside of the house?
We cooperated with artbook distributor 'twelvebooks' with whom we operated 'Vacant' together in the past, to set up a bookstore 'Thousandbooks' that sells all the stock of books for 1000 yen each, and we ran this bookstore until February.
For the floor and parts of walls, we’ve laid blue carpet. Choosing one colour based on the characteristics of the building, and using carpet that has high versatility are something that are commonly done for other SKWAT projects that happen after this project.
They held SKWAT as a guerrilla store in the two weeks before lifestyle shop CIBONE Aoyama closed for business due to the relocation.
A well-known cafe Shachill opened a pop-up shop in part of the SKWAT.
DAIKEI MILLS installed a green geometric pavilion inside the existing store that is partially traced and combined with the floor plan of the new CIBONE store.
— Could you also talk about ‘SKWAT/Shachill in CIBONE’ that held in the two weeks before lifestyle shop CIBONE Aoyama closed for business due to the relocation.
CIBONE Aoyama, we’ve designed in the past, decided to move to another place, so based on the key phrase “moving out to a new place”, we’ve suggested to cut out parts of walls and shelves of the existing shop, and then reconstruct them at the new location. During that process, there was a period when the business had to be run while demolish work was in progress on parts of the old shop, and that was when I suggested to initiate SKWAT to do something fun, on the contrary to this restricted situation, and we did it during the last 2 weeks of its business operation up until its very end date.
We created green geometric pavilion on the floor based on a part of the new floor plan to raise expetations for the new store.
— That’s very unique and guerrilla-like to initiate the SKWAT in such a bad timing when it’s impossible to run a usual business. Next, what’s the concept like for the third project ‘SKWAT/Kvadrat’ in Harajuku?
In collaboration with Danish textile manufacturer Kvadrat, SKWAT has created a space to sell the manufacturer's discontinued textiles to consumers.
I think in Japan we started to hear the word “sustainable” recently, but it’s not yet fully practiced to everyone. In Thousandbooks, we wanted to remove as much wastefulness as possible by guiding consumers to pick up a book from old stock.
Collaborating with Danish textile manufacturer Kvadrat, we based on the thought to treat and value every item and sold their discontinued products to customers. For the textile shop, we renovated parts of the building we’ve used for the very first SKWAT.
continue to part 2
