Mitsui & Co. Plastics — Otemachi: red stools at the end of the floor

Concept

Five spaces, named plainly

The company sets its office out in five pieces and gives each of them a one-line description: the building, a landmark in Otemachi; the entrance, the front door of the company; the guest space, where clients are received; the work space, the base of the working day; and the communication space, where you can refresh.

What makes it work is that the five are laid out as two routes. A visitor arrives, is received and shown to a room. Staff pass through to the desks, the phone booths, the planted meeting area and the counter at the end.

01 · The building

Otemachi, looking up

The building is described simply as a landmark of Otemachi, and the office page starts outside it.

02 · Entrance

The front door of the company

The lift lobby is shared; the company’s own entrance is a quiet wall, a sign and a single arrangement of flowers.

03 · Guest space

Where clients are received

Behind that sit the rooms for visitors: a reception room with dark sofas, and a meeting room lined in timber.

04 · Work space

Booths, and a room inside a carpet

The working side carries phone booths for calls, and a meeting area set into a round carpet with planting around it.

05 · Communication space

Timber screens, then red

A screen of timber posts and planting separates the last stretch, and the floor ends at a counter with a tiled front and red stools along it.