Kochi Shimbun — Kochi: 34 panels for 34 towns, and only one of them is real cypress

Concept

Kochi, hidden in the details

The old building split departments with corridors and walls, and people rarely worked beyond their own desk. The new office sets out to change that — but its most memorable feature is how much of Kochi Prefecture it hides in plain sight.

Above reception are 34 wood-grain panels, one for each of the prefecture’s municipalities. Thirty-three are melamine, for fire safety. One is natural Kochi hinoki cypress — a reminder of the newspaper’s creed, to tell the true from the false.

01 · Entrance

A cypress counter and a city made of letters

The 8th-floor entrance has a counter of Kochi hinoki and wood panelling. It greets business visitors and interviewees, and people who come to look something up or buy a paper.

The wall of the open meeting space shows the view over Kochi City from Mount Godai. Up close, the mosaic is made of hiragana, katakana and the everyday kanji used in newspapers.

02 · Lounge

A view of Kochi Castle

The 8th-floor lounge is used for breaks and as a change-of-scene workplace. Kochi Castle can be seen from the windows. The furniture moves, so the room can host after-work sports viewing on the big screen or events with partners. A café corner and digital signage for announcements complete it.

03 · Work floors

A colour for every floor

Floors 4 to 7 hold the work areas, in a universal layout that copes easily with changing team sizes. Tables near the desks, focus booths and semi-private meeting booths let people choose where to work.

Each floor has a colour taken from Kochi: browns and yellows for the Ryugado cave and Tatsukushi coast on 4, coral red on 5, the light blue of the Niyodo and Shimanto rivers on 6, green for the prefecture’s nature on 7.

04 · Reception rooms

A small art museum

The 4th floor holds the executive rooms and reception rooms. The waiting room shows work by Hiroshi Okutani, recipient of the Order of Culture, and photographs by artists inducted into the hall of fame of the Kochi Prefecture Art Exhibition, which the paper organises.

05 · The newsroom

A relay between two floors

Floors 5 and 6 belong to the editorial bureau, joined by a central staircase. A relay shelf passes manuscripts between the floors — copy checked by the proofreaders goes back and forth between reporters and layout editors without anything getting lost.