Hallucinatory Boutique in Osaka Shopping Mall

Hallucinatory Boutique in Osaka Shopping Mall
Kyoto's famous Zen garden, Ryoan-ji, is considered by many to be the culmination of the Japanese aesthetic.

Although no more than a sandbox of raked gravel and a few stones, it is enchantingly beautiful.

The longer one gazes at the simple scene, the more depth it seems to have; for this reason, many visitors who meditate here experience the power that emanates from what is virtually nothing.

If an abstract arrangement of gravel and stones can be called 'a garden', the same term can be applied to a boutique.

Via Bus Stop is a retail collage that draws its aesthetic from the Zen garden, surrealism and graffiti.

Boasting a floor area of 1000 square metres, the boutique is one of the larger outlets in a new upscale shopping centre across from Osaka's main railway station.

A glazed shop front separates the space from the broad corridor that runs through the mall.

This transparent frontage offers passers-by a full view of the white landscape - bizarre yet seductive - on the other side of the glass.

The interior was designed by EPA, three letters that stand for Environmental Protection Architectural Institute.

Architect Yukiharu Takematsu, a young man with a mischievous gleam in his eye, warns us not to take the name too literally.

An environment, he says, can be either natural or artificial.