,
3 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
Here's a very rare example of Japanese medieval shop architecture: Buchoutzukuri. The outer walls of the store front are divided in two parts, one which is raised and attached to the eaves, the other which is lowered and becomes a bench on which to display goods. #GoodUrbanism 
Once common in Kyoto and western Japan with whole streets dedicated to this kind of buildings, they are now so rare you'll be lucky to find even two next to each other in the same town. When this painting was made in 1615 they were already on the way out. But what clever idea!
The owners of the store would live in the same building, and only a small part of the street front room would be used as actual store space, the rest was devoted to workshop, storage, living area, perhaps even an indoor garden. An idea worth copying for dormant high streets?
