HAERA

In June 2026, NOIZ completed the interior design of HAERA, a new commercial destination in Nagoya’s Sakae district.

Occupying the B2 floor through the 4th floor of the mixed-use development The Landmark Nagoya Sakae, HAERA brings together a diverse collection of high-end retail, dining, and cultural programs.

The design conceives the entire complex as a Public Museum open to Nagoya’s urban center, with each floor functioning as a distinct gallery. Rather than creating isolated identities, the project establishes a gradual transition of materials, colors, and spatial compositions from level to level, allowing visitors to experience both continuity and contrast as they move vertically through the building.

A foundational computational design logic unifies the entire interior, while each floor develops its own material palette, pattern and atmosphere through expressive columns, flooring and ceilings patterns, and custom furniture. Beginning with an opulent composition of gold and white on the ground floor, the sequence gradually shifts upward through silver and bronze before arriving at warm timber finishes on the upper levels. Descending below ground, the material language transforms again—from the tactile quality of unglazed clay to vibrant recycled materials—reflecting the changing character, energy, and social intensity of each floor.

The escalators and elevator halls that connect the floors vertically are intentionally designed as luminous, light-filled spaces. By washing off the strong material identities of each level, these vertical circulation spaces function as interludes within a musical suite, resetting visitors’ perception before introducing them to the atmosphere of the next gallery.

From flagship stores of global luxury brands to intimate local counter-style eateries, HAERA accommodates a constantly evolving mix of tenants and experiences. Store interiors and exhibitions are expected to change over time, reinforcing the project’s belief that a public museum is ultimately completed not by architecture and artifacts alone, but by its visitors. Beyond displaying products, HAERA frames the movement, encounters, and experiences of its guests as exhibitions in themselves, providing stages, places to linger, and moments of discovery that are continuously rewritten through everyday use.

Throughout the project, a series of distinctive places and material interventions explore the intersection of local craftsmanship and computational design. The distinct tiled columns adjacent to the main escalators were developed in collaboration with LIXIL CERAMICS LAB, local timber fabricators, and recycled tile manufacturers, resulting in custom ceramic surfaces tailored to the identity of each floor.

On the third floor, the multipurpose lounge “Labyrinth” reimagines public space through deliberately ambiguous programs. Neutral Voronoi-shaped rooms are woven together by large tree logs from Hida area, sourced and fabricated in collaboration with Hidakuma, creating a spatial sequence that metaphorically extends the deepest interior of the building into the forests of Hida.

Additional collaborative interventions are embedded throughout the project, including uniquely designed restrooms by NOW (excluding the third floor), custom benches developed with Studio Arche beside the escalators, and the marble floor at the main entrance, whose pattern gradually slides and rotates by 45 degrees as visitors enter the building.

Through these layered collaborations—where material experimentation meets playful spatial interventions—HAERA proposes a new model for contemporary commercial environments: one in which architecture continually generates unexpected encounters, relationships, and diverse forms of public activity, transforming retail space into a living exhibition of everyday urban life.