JAPAN'S BEST-DESIGNED OFFICESConcept
The company that has to keep its subject alive
Most manufacturers keep a sample room. Earth Corporation keeps a zoo. In the research centre at Ako there is a breeding room holding about a hundred species of pest insect from Japan and overseas, at a temperature and humidity steady enough that the colonies can be bred generation after generation — because you cannot test a repellent without something to repel. Down the corridor are a chamber for watching how a spray disperses and another where live insects are released into the product to see what happens.
The company is entirely cheerful about this. The research centre’s entrance displays the products alongside, in its own words, artworks with that insect as their motif, and the visitor route ends with a section themed on the five senses where, the site notes, you might get to touch one. A firm whose business is killing something has decided that the honest thing to do is to show the thing alive, framed and lit, at the front door.
01 · The head office
A ceramic panel of your own products
Reception in Kanda is a bright white room, and the thing it puts in front of a visitor is a ceramic panel set with the company’s own products. The head office holds corporate strategy, administration and marketing, and is rolling free address out floor by floor.
02 · COSMOS, and the rest
Board meetings and final interviews
The company singles out one meeting room, COSMOS, for its interior; it takes board meetings and final interviews. Alongside it are an open space anyone can drop into and a room fitted for remote meetings.
03 · The top floor
Sunlight, and nobody’s desk
The top floor is a staff-only lounge, used for internal discussions and for doing nothing in particular. The company describes it simply as sunlit and as the head office’s place to rest.
04 · Act Terrace
The earth, projected
Next door, Act Terrace holds the sales divisions. Visitors meet a painting of the earth made for the company and projection mapping on a large screen; beyond it are meeting spaces, a staff café named for the “Act” kind of person, a room with a projector, and sofas for lunch or for thinking.
05 · The research centre
Ako, and the open door
The Ako research centre was completed in 2002 and run on an open-door policy, with walls and columns kept to a minimum. Its entrance shows the products next to artworks based on the insects; inside, everything is white for hygiene.
06 · The insects, and the factory
A hundred species, then lunch
The breeding room holds about a hundred species; a display area takes visiting customers and study groups. At the Ako factory the public viewing route explains the plant and the company’s history, and the break space — refitted in 2020, with a canteen — changes its interior from area to area.
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