TOKYO — Luxury eyewear house AHLEM opens its first Japanese atelier on October 10, 2026. Located at 6-chōme-7-1 Minamiaoyama, Minato City, the atelier marks the house’s first permanent presence in Asia and its latest collaboration with architect Maja Bernvill and Tokyo-based architect Yuichi Hashimura supporting the realization of the space as local architect.

It joins AHLEM locations in Los Angeles, Venice Beach, San Francisco, Paris Saint-Germain, and New York’s Nolita and Meatpacking District. A second Paris space, also designed by Bernvill, will open in the Haut Marais later this year.

For founder and designer Ahlem Manai-Platt, the opening represents both a milestone for the house and the realization of a long-held personal dream. Years of traveling throughout the Japanese archipelago have profoundly shaped her sensibility.

“Japan has long held a very special place for me and for AHLEM. There is a shared belief that beauty comes from precision, restraint and respect for craftsmanship,” says Manai-Platt. “It is one of the places where our work is understood without needing to be explained.”

Set at the meeting point of Minami-Aoyama and Nishi-Azabu — a quiet enclave of low-rise architecture, galleries, Michelin-starred restaurants and hidden courtyards — the space offers a sense of tranquility in the heart of Tokyo

“The site presents an architectural rarity in the city: a single-story pavilion adjoining a larger building, yet exposed on two sides,”says Bernvill. “It has the intimate presence of an independent house.”

Clad in the same cream ceramic tile as the structure beside it, the boutique belongs naturally to its surroundings while drawing light from both flanks. Along one side, a woodland-inspired garden softens the boundary between architecture and landscape.

Bernvill and Manai-Platt drew on two distinct artistic visions: the sculptural abstraction of Isamu Noguchi and the temporal meditations of Hiroshi Sugimoto. The plan began with a single work from Noguchi’s Paris Abstraction series.

“We have used Noguchi’s drawings from 1927–28 as generative blueprints for AHLEM spaces in Paris, New York and Los Angeles,”explains Bernvill. “For Tokyo, the selected work led to a long, elegant and tapered silhouette.”

Its curling line evokes a single note of music or a typographic comma, in contrast with the more geometric studies behind previous locations.

Sugimoto’s influence is experiential. References include his Glass Tea House “Mondrian,” now installed on Naoshima Island, and the 100-meter gallery at his Enoura Observatory in Odawara, which opens onto the sea.

“Walking through the gallery at Enoura years ago created an almost primal sense of suspended time,” says Manai-Platt. “That moment became a beautiful obsession. It suggested the idea of a sculptural entrance that could hold both silence and intensity.”

The street-facing passage creates an initial sense of compression before opening into the secluded consultation room at the rear. The transition feels quiet, protected and intuitive: a cocoon of stillness just beyond the city.

The experience begins at the front window, where a single pair of frames is illuminated on a bespoke vitrine sculpted from white powder-coated steel. Folded into sharp planes, the pedestal evolved from a series of paper studies — an abstract exercise in origami-like discipline.

Inside, a curved gallery wall brings the complete collection into view from the threshold. Opposite, the central table sits between an examination room and a fitting workstation. A concealed panel opens to reveal a selection of the newest AHLEM frames.

At the rear, the shell-like private room is enclosed by a kinetic textile door created by Yuichi and textile designer Yuka, drawing inspiration from the work of Hyunjee Jung. Textile made from white silk fabric traditionally used for kimonos, move along a circular ceiling rail to provide privacy. The installation reinterprets the filtered translucence of traditional shoji screens, creating a boundary that is soft, breathable and luminous.

All furniture, fixtures and lighting were custom-designed for the space.

Japanese wool and silk textiles, along with a garden of native greenery, introduce a regional dimension to AHLEM’s established design vocabulary.

“There is a material thread connecting every AHLEM space, but here it enters into a subtle local dialogue,” says Bernvill.

“What makes Tokyo unique is the conversation between its materials. Concrete and metal bring precision, walnut adds warmth, and mirrors play with light and perspective. The textile door softens the architecture and gives the private room its intimacy,”says Manai-Platt.“Together, these elements create a space that feels both rigorous and deeply human.”

Solid walnut benches and tables coexist alongside delicate sculpted-glass pedestals. Structural columns, wrapped in reflective metal, shed their bulk. Nubbly textiles and curvilinear furnishings provide an earthy, textural contrast with smooth finishes of polished concrete, brushed steel, mirrored surfaces, and waxed wood. Executed with a light but precise hand, the atmosphere is both soothing and inspiring.