SPIRITED AWAY

Shiro Kuramata designed hundreds of bars in his lifetime, but few remain intact. Now fans are making a pilgrimage to an enchanting example in Shizuoka

- DANIELLE DEMETRIOU

Shiro Kuramata famously viewed his designs as transient, fragile, fleeting, never expecting the immateriality of his creative vision to last for long.

Today, as Kuramata anticipated, few of the countless interiors that he dreamt up have survived since his death in 1991.

One space, however, is still around and now back on the creative radar: a cocktail bar called Comblé, in the city of Shizuoka, a few hours west of Tokyo on Japan's Pacific Ocean coast.

Located on the first floor of an otherwise nondescript building, the bar displays Kuramata's signature use of geometry and sweeping curves fused with floating components, a bold palette and striking materials such as acrylic, glass and terrazzo.

The bar is one of the few intact Kuramata designed interiors known to still exist, and a growing number of fans are making a pilgrimage to experience the space first-hand.