YAMAHA MUSIC YOKOHAMA MINATOMIRAI

At Yamaha Music Yokohama Minatomirai, lighting is essential for how the environment conveys music. The design, created by LCR, KOIZUMI Lighting Technology Corp., is inspired by the 1/f fluctuation concept, a pattern found in natural elements like ripples, wind, and starlight, where stability and variety coexist harmoniously.

This idea perfectly complements Yamaha’s philosophy. Music depends on rhythm, repetition, and pauses, yet it remains expressive because these aspects are never entirely mechanical. The lighting in this venue reflects that principle, establishing a visual tempo that can be sensed even before any instrument is played.

A sequence of white louvers extends roughly 100 meters throughout the interior, above the music lounge, café, and other public spaces. Their curved shapes create an uninterrupted flow across this large commercial area while allowing enough depth for a more complex lighting arrangement.

The downlights are carefully placed based on overlapping waveforms that stem from natural 1/f rhythms. Their spacing subtly varies across the ceiling, resulting in a composition that feels unified without adhering to a conventional retail design. Viewed from below, the lights appear like scattered musical notes instead of simply repeated fixtures.

Beneath this visual simplicity lies significant technical complexity. The team modelled the ceiling and the placement of lights in three dimensions, testing the rhythm against the practical requirements for instrument displays, movement, seating, and visual comfort. Modifications were made whenever the spatial design required greater accuracy. This interaction between calculation and design intuition imparts character to the project. The numerical framework establishes the rhythm’s foundation, while the placement of lights reacts to how people navigate through the area and interact with the instruments.

In the music lounge, curved seating arrangements position instruments conveniently, fostering a more casual relationship with sound. A large digital artwork acts as a visual centrepiece, while the ceiling preserves the same fluctuating rhythm overhead. The café mirrors this design language through tables and counters, establishing a cohesive visual identity for both hospitality and music retail.

The illuminated ceiling also enhances the building's visibility at night. Through the glazed façade of Yokohama Symphostage, the long line of louvers and dispersed light gives Yamaha Music a unique prominence from the street, connecting the activities inside with the larger Minatomirai district.

At Yamaha Music Yokohama Minatomirai, the 1/f principle shifts from scientific observation to an everyday cultural context. LCR, KOIZUMI Lighting Technology Corp. employs it to shape the ceiling's rhythm, light distribution, and how visitors engage with music, gathering, and exploration within the same environment.

The main achievement of the project is converting an abstract natural principle into a practical lighting system. The use of multiple wave patterns creates visual irregularity, while three-dimensional testing ensures that the lighting is appropriately distributed over instrument displays, circulation areas, and seating.

The 100-meter louvered ceiling gives the project a strong spatial identity without relying on repetitive decorative motifs. Its continuous design connects the music lounge, café, and retail areas, while variations in density and brightness respond to the specific functions of each space.

The design also demonstrates a sense of restraint. The lighting operates in a musical manner through careful spacing and intensity, yet the interior avoids literal representations of musical notes, instrument silhouettes, or theatrical effects. Yamaha's identity is expressed through rhythm and experience rather than through branding imagery.

The 1/f concept is rooted in its empirical testing. Without proper calibration, it risks remaining a mere pattern-generating narrative; however, through three-dimensional adjustments, it evolves into a practical lighting plan that safeguards instruments, enhances face visibility, and facilitates circulation. Yamaha's identity is articulated without the use of visual shorthand. The rhythm is intricately woven into the spacing and intensity of the illumination, allowing the light to function musically while ensuring that the commercial environment remains composed. This equilibrium bestows greater credibility upon the project, distinguishing it from a ceiling designed solely for photographic purposes.

**Image 01 — Night Façade at Yokohama Symphostage** The music facility presents a vibrant interior landscape visible through full-height glazing. The white louvered ceiling is visible from the public plaza, providing the ground-floor frontage with a distinctive rhythm after dark.

**Image 02 — Music Lounge and Digital Stage Wall** Curved seating islands are arranged to place instruments within an informal gathering space beneath a luminous canopy. A large digital artwork anchors the far wall, while irregular ceiling lights distribute attention throughout the room.

**Image 03 — Café and Hospitality Zone** A curved counter, black shelving, and abundant greenery sit beneath the same white louvered system. Focused lighting supports service functions, while softer illumination extends towards the tables and lounge chairs.

**Image 04 — Long Retail and Café Axis** The view along the interior showcases the seamless continuity of the ceiling. Downlights are positioned at varied intervals between the louvers, guiding the eye through the café, displays, and seating without creating a rigid grid.

**Image 05 — Principal Experiential Music Space** Layered white ceiling elements rise above sculptural seating and displayed instruments, creating a sheltered landscape feel. The large screen and glazed façade define opposite edges of the room.

The presentation panel delineates the 100-metre ceiling as a continuous expanse rather than a collection of independently illuminated rooms. Various waveform patterns are overlaid onto the louvers, incorporating motifs inspired by ripple-like and starlight-like fluctuations. Downlights are positioned at selected intervals along these curves.

The design lays out the facility as an elongated public corridor adjacent to the glazed building façade. The main music lounge is located within a higher volume near the prominent digital wall, while café and retail functions extend beneath the lower extension of the louver canopy. Planters, counters, and seating areas define distinct zones without disrupting the overall continuity of the ceiling design.

The lighting diagram initiates with an irregular distribution that is subsequently refined through three-dimensional modeling. This refinement harmonizes the wavelength pattern with practical considerations, including instrument illumination, table lighting, visitor comfort, and circulation. Consequently, the spatial system evolves from a conceptual waveform into a validated built condition.

An experiential music commercial facility where visitors can interact with and discover sounds and instruments that suit them. The spatial design is themed around the natural sway and pleasant irregularities found in nature, aiming to create an environment that feels like being in serene nature rather than being overly artificially decorated. In contrast, the lighting is designed around the concept of 1/f fluctuation, proposing a rhythm of comfortable light in a space that plays pleasing tones as a music facility. The approximately 100-meter-long cloud-like louvers are defined as a single musical score. The natural fluctuations and wavelengths are diagrammed, and downlights are placed at specific points along the wavelengths, creating a natural lighting environment that avoids artificial regularity. Since a single wavelength would be monotonous, multiple wavelengths, such as starlight twinkles and ripples, are combined to achieve a more random and rich expression. Merely arranging downlights at the wavelength points would compromise the visual impact when illuminating instruments and the convenience for visitors, so the design was adjusted through 3D software to check the balance of light, resulting in a pseudo-computational design.

Prepared for Merci Magazine × Sky Design Awards 2026