Tetsuya Matsumoto Receives the Bronze A' Design Award for Blarney Irish Pub And Cafe in Interior Space and Exhibition Design

Tetsuya Matsumoto recognized for interior space and exhibition design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 20, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ Blarney Irish Pub And Cafe by Tetsuya Matsumoto, designed for The Blarney Stone, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Interior Space and Exhibition Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The Bronze A' Design Award Explained

The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.

About Blarney Irish Pub And Cafe

Blarney is an interior design for an Irish pub and cafe in Osaka, Japan. The space serves customers from early morning to late night. The counter back cabinet uses pivoting doors that alternate between shelves for alcoholic beverages and shelves for cafe utensils. Heavy traditional decoration is replaced by monochrome art painted directly on the walls, showing Irish cultural elements and interpretations of iconic posters. All tables share the same height as the bar counter to suit the narrow space. The total floor area is 70.78 square meters.

About Tetsuya Matsumoto

Tetsuya Matsumoto is the founder and Head Architect Designer at KTX archiLAB based in Japan, and a Lecturer of a space design course at Osaka University of Art. After graduating from the same university, he specialized in commercial space design and built a large portfolio of projects varying both in type and scale, from shops and restaurants to offices and clinics, and from a small pharmacy to a large Hospital. Tetsuya has received more than a hundred local and international design awards and became a jury member for several prestigious prizes.

Award Record

With this recognition, Tetsuya Matsumoto is a winner of 26 A' Design Awards. The awards span the editions from 2014 - 2015 to 2024 - 2025 of the A' Design Award & Competition.

About the A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award

The A' Interior Design Award is an international interior design competition recognizing good interior designs by interior designers and architects worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to interior designers, interior architects, architects and decorators from all countries. Entries typically include residential interiors, restaurants, hotels, offices, galleries and retail stores. Awarded interior designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/interior

About A' Design Award & Competition

A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/169985
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/169985
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!169985
Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/148039
Further Information from the Laureate: https://ktx.space/

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Blarney Irish Pub And Cafe
Function: Irish Pub And Cafe
Category: Interior Space and Exhibition Design
Discipline: Spatial Design
Industry: Architecture and Packaging & Retail
Colors: Black, Dark Slate Gray, Dark Olive Green, Gray and Dim Gray
Images: 5
Client: The Blarney Stone

The Recognition

Laureate: Tetsuya Matsumoto
Country: Japan
Recognition: Bronze A' Design Award
Edition: 2024 - 2025
Design ID: #169985

Credits

Design Details

Unique Properties: For its third location as an Irish pub in Osaka, Blarney had to shift its business model to be able to serves customers from early morning to late night. To allow this transition the counter back cabinet uses a system of swinging doors altering between alcoholic beverages and cafe utensils shelves. Compared to a traditional Irish pub the heavy decoration was scraped out and replaced by monochrome art painted directly on the walls of the pub, and representing Irish culture and iconic posters.
Inspiration: The bar and cafe cabinet are inspired by traditional furniture and black board signage. And added a twist by allowing them to pivot between the two, uncovering one or the other every time. The art on the wall refers to Irish cultural elements including the Blarney castle, the four leaf clove, the harp and some traditional motifs. The art also interprets some iconic posters for Irish whiskey and Guinness beer.
Research: The project had to deal with a prominent dilemma that is related to its situation. The facility has strict rules that force the shop to open and provide services from early morning to late night. An Irish pub working hours is essentially in the afternoon and evening time, thus the need to convert the space to provide cafe services as well. The research consisted of balancing two different aesthetics of heavy Irish pubs and soft atmosphere of a cafe without loosing function of one or the other.
Challenge: The middle ground between heavily decorated Irish pub and soft and relaxing atmosphere of a cafe can hardly be determined. Two strategies were adopted. The first is to design a counter back cabinet that showcases both alcoholic beverages and cafe utensils by creating pivoting doors. The second is to abstain from using any kind of traditional decoration and replace it with wall painting inspired by Irish culture elements and iconic posters interpretations.
Realization and Technology: The walls are made using drywall techniques. They were then divided into three sections. A lower one is finished with cement based material. The middle part is finished in covering sheet with a rusted metal motif. And the upper part is finished in the same grey wall cloth as the ceiling. An indirect light line separates the wall parts. The art was painted directly on the top of the rust metal sheet.
Operation and Interaction: The shop has an almost trapezoidal shape with two sides open to the corridor shared with all the other restaurants. The closed kitchen is set to be in the corner with two walls. It extends with the counter space along the large wall and ends with the coffee machine space that is placed specifically to serve morning commuters. To avoid awkward positions in the narrow space all tables in the hall are set to the same height as the bar counter.
Project Duration and Location: Project start: June 2023. Construction starts: April 2024. Project/Construction End: July 2024. Location: Osaka, Japan.
Specifications: Gross Built Area: 70.78sqm W12085mm x D7050mm x H2800mm
Keywords: Japan, Osaka, Irish, Pub, Cafe, Flexible, interior, hospitality, bar, art