TOKYO H.R. GIGER BAR
NO LONGER EXISTS
 

The Giger-Bar in Tokyo was actually created against my will. While I was in Tokyo, I was asked to make a wish, on stage, during a press conference. Spontaneously, I wished for a bar, which was then brought into being even more spontaneously! 

For this bar, I had developed the concept of tables-for-two in open elevator cars in the manner of gliding elevators that would travel up and down the four-story establishment, perpetually in motion. I hadn't taken into consideration the Japanese fire marshals. I had already been driven to the brink of madness by the building codes requiring flexible structures to ensure that buildings withstand earthquake shocks. When they nixed the elevator idea and prescribed fixed cabins hanging like balconies with wire mesh on the atrium side, I threw in the towel. Only Conny de Fries and my former agent persevered. This bar, with its huge entrance area, inside which spiral stairs open to the atrium, came into being. 

It seems the bar was tailor-made for the underworld, which is not what I had intended. A friend who visited the place about 5 years after it opened told me it had fallen into the hands of the Yakuza. He went on to report that he was alone in the bar until 11 o'clock, when it began to fill with the type of unsavory characters who might have installed a roulette table in the atrium. My friend chose to take his leave. 

The bar no longer exists. Insiders know that a bar in Tokyo rarely survives more than five years! 

H.R. Giger

Excerpt from the book
www HR Giger com
© 1997 Taschen Verlag
 

 

The Bar was located at:

5-10-15

Shiroganedai

Minato-Ku
Tokyo

Click on the images for a larger view...


Bar Brochure (inwards) *

Bar Brochure (outside) *


Drink Coaster *


Bar inside *

Main Entrance

Bar inside *

Bar inside

Main Bar

Bar inside

Sketch from Giger -
Interior Design

Sketche from Giger -
Main Entrance

Sketch from Giger -
Interior Design
* thanks for the scans from Eric Chu - Vancouver - Canada