The neighborhood entrance to Fuglen Kyoto. All pictures courtesy of Fuglen.

Welcome to Design Particulars, an ongoing editorial function in Each day Espresso Information centered on particular person examples of espresso store structure, inside design, packaging design or branding. If you’re a espresso store proprietor, designer or architect and want to submit your challenge for consideration, attain our editors right here.

Design Particulars: Fuglen Kyoto

• Challenge: Fuglen Kyoto
• Location: Shichiku, Kita Ward, Kyoto, Japan (on Kitayama Dori)
• Accomplished: December 2025
• Program: Espresso bar (small stand with indoor counter seating and out of doors benches)

The most recent Japanese espresso bar from Norwegian-born specialty espresso model Fuglen adapts a former neighborhood confectionery in Kyoto right into a compact, street-facing espresso stand with a mid-century fashionable front room really feel.

On Kitayama Dori in a quiet residential neighborhood referred to as Shichiku, the espresso store comes courtesy of native companions Ami and Shin Mononobe, a jewellery designer and design studio head, respectively, who bought the constructing simply previous to working with Fuglen.

Whereas the companions have their workplace, atelier and jewellery store in the identical constructing, the store itself is designed to replicate “a way of neighborhood the place the time flows at Kyoto tempo,” in line with a challenge description Fuglen shared with DCN.

“Kyoto has lengthy been a fantastic supply of inspiration for us,” Keiya Takahashi, Fuglen Japan CEO and director, mentioned. “We admire its centuries-old conventional cultures and values to guard outdated methods and incorporate them into fashionable life. We’ve got at all times felt a robust synergy between Kyoto and our ideas that commemorate historical past, heritage and craftsmanship.”

The Kyoto store follows the model’s acquainted palette of Norwegian mid-century woodwork and heat lighting, with a ribbed picket bar, open shelving and low tables framing the espresso station.

Echoing the intimate scale of Fuglen’s authentic 1963 Oslo bar, the Kyoto store provides clear frontage, welcoming company to small desk seating, bar counters and out of doors benches that each one reinforce the mid-century fashionable aesthetic.

“Fuglen has at all times developed by taking small, thought of steps. Kyoto looks like a pure continuation of our journey — a spot the place time and high quality are deeply revered,” Fuglen Founder and International Director Einar Kleppe Holthe mentioned within the announcement. “We look ahead to seeing Fuglen Kyoto turn out to be a pure a part of the neighborhood over time.”

Feedback? Questions? Information to share? Contact DCN’s editors right here. For all the newest espresso trade information, subscribe to the DCN e-newsletter. 

Associated Posts