Fuji Oil — Hannan: a welfare building with an unmanned, cashless shop in it

Concept

The shop with nobody in it

Of everything in this set of buildings, the detail that says most is the shop in the Hannan Communication Center: completely unmanned, and cashless. No one is employed to stand in it. It is a small, unsentimental piece of design that assumes the people using it will pay, and it sits inside a facility the company describes as weighted towards welfare.

The rest of the centre is arranged along the same lines — a cafeteria under a full-height void, a communication and relaxation area, a silent room, small meeting spaces and concentration booths. Around it, the company’s other sites repeat the pattern at different scales: a gallery at the innovation centre that lays out ninety years of taste and health on a timeline, a Tsukuba research centre that keeps a video link to head office open all day, and a Tokyo office that has gone free address.

01 · Hannan

A lobby, and a stair

The head office building is entered at a curved reception lobby with a stair rising out of it; the refresh room beyond looks out over the site.

02 · The Communication Center

Opened January 2023

The welfare building is arranged around a void, with a cafeteria under it, a café counter at one side and planting along the tables.

03 · The shop, the booths and the silent room

Three ways of being left alone

The shop is unmanned and cashless. Beyond it, free space and a lounge, then concentration booths and a silent room built as a row of white enclosures.

04 · The gallery

Ninety years, on a wall

At the Science Innovation Center a gallery sets out the company’s history as a timeline, with a virtual factory tour and a product display, and a multi-purpose hall beside it.

05 · Meeting, and eating

The rest of the site

A communication area with round tables, a meeting space, the kitchen behind the cafeteria, and a further conference room complete the tour.