Earth Pet — Tokushima: a research building where the dogs and cats are colleagues

Concept

A lab designed like a shop

Okamura’s designer on the project normally works on supermarkets and fashion stores, not offices. The brief suited that: the building had to be a good place for researchers, and also show off products and ideas to visitors the way a shop would.

So the high entrance has a wall displaying Earth Pet products and a fully mirrored ceiling that seems to go up forever. Even flea and tick research, usually done behind closed doors, is visible: the breeding boxes can be seen from the corridor.

01 · Entrance

A mirrored ceiling and a wall of products

The entrance is an open, double-height space. The ceiling is entirely mirrored, and the display wall of products is designed to make people want to take a photo and share it. Straight ahead, behind a large glass wall, are the animals.

02 · The dog and cat employees

Colleagues, not subjects

Behind the glass, lively dogs run up to greet visitors. Up the central stairs, on a raised floor, the cats climb and play. The catwalk is shaped like a tree trunk, and its angle is designed to make climbing easy for cats.

03 · Experience rooms

A grooming class and a living room

Near the entrance, the grooming room is where the animals are shampooed and trimmed; staff with grooming qualifications teach classes. A wall graphic shows the “Pet Town” the company imagines for the future. In the living-experience room, visitors spend time with the animals as if at home.

04 · Research, in view

Watching a lead being tested

Visitors can watch research and product development: the quality analysis lab where raw materials and ingredients are examined, and tests of the strength of leads that keep pets safe. In the development room there is a horigotatsu — a sunken table like a family’s tatami room — used for meetings and breaks.

05 · Signs

Paw prints on the glass

The signage is playful. The anti-collision stickers on the glass are dog and cat paw prints — and a few of them, placed at random, are the company’s characters John and Mary, for visiting children to find. Three rooms have clocks designed from the Earth Pet logo, each one different.