JAPAN'S BEST-DESIGNED OFFICESConcept
An airline’s trading company builds a park
The most literal idea in this office is also the best one. The collaboration area is called Co-En — which is the English co- attached to the Japanese for park, kōen, and pronounced the same way as the Japanese word. Parts of the floor are laid in artificial grass, and the furniture on the grass is not office furniture: desk bikes, a vibration plate, balance balls.
The rest follows the same instinct for naming. The lounge is Kumo, cloud. The concentration booths are In the ZONE, and they are scented. The meeting rooms take the names of cities the airline flies to, which for a company whose business is moving goods between those cities is not decoration but an index. The consistent thing is that every part of the floor has been given a name that tells you how to behave in it.
01 · The work area
Desks, and the tower behind them
The working floor is open desking with the city, and Tokyo Tower, behind the glass.
02 · Co-En
The grass, and what is on it
The collaboration area is laid partly in grass, planted at the edges, and furnished with round tables, bench seating along the window, and exercise equipment kept out on the floor.
03 · Rooms for meeting
Cities, and weather
The meeting rooms carry the names of cities on the airline’s international network; a further set is named on natural themes. Beside them, a counter with high stools takes the conversations that do not need a room.
04 · In the ZONE
Quiet, and scented
The concentration booths are built as semi-enclosed pods in pale moulded panelling, kept quiet and lightly scented.
