From Laundry Room to Community Hub: A Japanese Laundromat's Ice Cream Revolution

In Chuo City, Shikoku, Japan, a self-service laundry named LAUNDRY HOLIDAY is redefining the meaning of “waiting”. People come here to do laundry, eat ice cream, play table tennis, and even are willing to come and sit for a while without doing laundry. After a renovation in 2022, the sales of this 25-year-old store soared by 140%, becoming a miniature sample of the “third space” business wave in Japan.
From Survival Crises to Community Landmarks
In 1997, Naomi Shinohara’s family opened a traditional self-service laundry in Chuo City, Shikoku. Twenty-five years later, in the face of aging equipment and a shrinking customer base, Naomi once considered closing stores, but ultimately chose a “reverse transformation” :
● Break the Functional Boundaries
Introduce the ice cream shop YOSHIO ICE CREAM.
Reconstruct the space with transparent corrugated boards to seamlessly integrate the laundry area and the leisure area.
● Time Value 
Use off-peak hours of laundry (Peak: morning and weekend) and ice cream( Peak: afternoon), the average daily customer/foot traffic of a single store has increased by 2.3 times.

● The Designs Full of Hidden Tricks
The folding table can be instantly transformed into a ping-pong table, and the exterior bench creates a “social corner under the eaves”, extending the average user stay time from 18 minutes to 52 minutes.
“People do not hide and sit in the car to wait for the laundry anymore. Instead, they enjoy an unexpected and relaxing time.” Naomi said.
The Space Revolution: How does an Old Warehouse become a “365-day Holiday”
● The Design Philosophy
Use the Smallest intervention to build the greatest resonance
The reconstruction of LAUNDRY HOLIDAY was handled by the Hiroshima architectural firm Suppose Design Office. The core strategy is the “coexistence of the old and the new”.
● Maintain the Industrial Gene
The corrugated board exterior wall of the original warehouse was strengthened into a visual symbol, and transparent panels were added to introduce natural light, reducing the cost by 37%.
● Functional Reorganization
Demolish the idle structure to expand the parking lot (with 16 parking Spaces). 
The ice cream stand with green tiles echoes the view of the Setonaikai Sea.

● The Community Narrative
The 40-meter triangular area at the entrance integrates into the forest landscape of Itsukushima Shrine, blurring the boundaries between commercial Spaces and public areas.
● The Data Confirms the Concept
After the renovation, the proportion of household customers rose from 32% to 68%, and the number of users over 60 years old increased by 41%. Many elderly people come to buy ice cream every day just to chat with their neighbors. Naomi discovered that space itself has become a social currency.
The Hidden Bond of the Town’s Business
● Dual-income families have given rise to the essential demand for “laundry +”
Chuo City in Shikoku has a population of less than 100,000, yet it is a major manufacturing hub in Japan, with the proportion of dual-income families exceeding the national average by 14%. LAUNDRY HOLIDAY precisely targets three major demands:
1. Time-saving and essential
It takes only 60 minutes to wash and dry large bedding items, with a single cost 25% lower than that of a household washing machine. 
2. Parent-child scene
Children play ping pong so that parents can deal with work emails. The anxiety of waiting is turned into family time. 
3. Regional identity
Ice cream raw materials procurement is from local farmers
A food market is held every month to strengthen its attribute as a “community hub”.
● Entrepreneurship has revitalized the small town
Naomi holds multiple positions - creative director of a clothing brand, manager of an ice cream shop, and business consultant - yet she insists on directing resources to her hometown. “Big cities are not short of innovation, but small towns need people who dare to break the rules even more.” The “Laundry +” model she led has been included in the case library of Waseda University’s MBA program.

The Future: Be an “Anti-Efficientialist” in Commercial Spaces
When most enterprises pursue area-effectiveness, LAUNDRY HOLIDAY opts to “waste” space:
● Anti-standardization
Reject chain replication. Each new store needs to customize scenarios based on the characteristics of the community (such as adding a reading corner or a handicraft workshop). 
● Weakening marketing
Rely on word of mouth and in activities.
Activities drainage accounted for 63% in 2023. 
● Longtermism
Reach a ten-year update plan with Suppose Design Office and fine-tune the space every three years to adapt to changing requirements.   
“Commercial Spaces should not only be about transactions; they should also carry memories and warmth,” Naomi said. Perhaps the ambition of this laundry is precisely to teach an era that prioritizes efficiency to “slow down”.