← Agency directory Tokyo, Japan · est 1998
Schemata Architects
Architecture · Interior · Furniture · Retail
Founded 1998 by Jo Nagasaka. Material-reuse and local-sourcing-led. Works quietly at smaller scale than most luxury retail studios but shapes the aesthetic vocabulary that bigger brands adopt. The Aesop partnership alone is a reference case for how long-term retail relationships compound editorial value.
Jo Nagasaka’s practice works at smaller scale than most of the studios on this Directory, but the material-reuse and local-sourcing discipline across the Aesop and Le Labo partnerships is a reference case that larger practices continue to absorb.
Notable work
- Aesop Aoyama, Ginza, Kichijoji — long-term Aesop collaboration (Aoyama 2010 reclaimed wood; Kichijoji 2023 environmental brief)
- Le Labo Kyoto (preserved machiya)
- Le Labo Daikanyama
- Blue Bottle Coffee cafés across Tokyo
- re;code Seoul (upcycled furniture from salvaged materials)
- Vitra and Marimekko installations