Sunnyhills Cake Shop in Tokyo by Kengo Kuma & Associates

Glass does not have a monopoly on transparency. Using the ancient and fiendishly complex Japanese joinery technique of jigoku-gumi, which literally means ‘interlocking hell’, Kengo Kuma enveloped this Tokyo bakery in a hectic cloud of wooden struts. The interior is not visible from the street, making display of the wares on sale impossible, but the building is instantly recognisable –from a distance, it is reminiscent of a wasp nest – making it a striking advertisement for the business. And while you may not be able to see inside, the facade is still transparent to a degree, seeming to dissolve at its fringes, and certainly translucent when lit from within at night. Kuma is no stranger to such attention-grabbing retail strategies, although their formal qualities may have changed since the Postmodernist excess of his M2 showroom.