KURU — KURUTO: shop, shared office and gallery, run by the architects

The architecture firm KURU planned, designed and now runs KURUTO, on the ground floor of an apartment block in Minami-Horie, Osaka, next to its own office. When two units became vacant at once, the firm set three conditions — room for partners, daily contact with neighbours and a business that pays — and chose three uses: shop, shared office and gallery.

Company KURU ↗Location Minami-Horie, Nishi, OsakaCompleted 2025Floor area 194.78 m²Uses shop, shared office, galleryDesign KURU

Concept

Multi-focal

The shop sells many kinds of goods, the gallery hosts changing shows and the shared office gathers creators from architecture to graphics.

For such a mix, the architects chose not one symbolic focus but a decentralised, multi-focal space.

01 · Found

What the site already had

Orderly concrete blocks, depth gained by removing walls and the memory of a former lumber-wholesale district were all reinterpreted.

02 · Landscape

Scattered elements

These elements were scattered through the space so they overlap, creating a landscape-like environment.

CompanyKURU ↗

DesignKURU

PhotographyHiroki Kawata

SourceTECTURE MAG, “KURUTO”, re-reported by WALL ↗

PublishedOctober 2026

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