JAPAN'S BEST-DESIGNED OFFICESConcept
One floor, two names
The head office is a single floor on free address, so that people can talk across the boundaries between departments without arranging anything.
The two halves are named. STUDIO is the community space — vending machines and a coffee machine, used for lunch and for a quick meeting, and at night for drinks parties and catered events with clients. GARDEN is where the desks are, fitted with things intended to make new ideas easier: colourful chairs whose bases are exercise balls, and standing booths for meetings held on your feet.
01 · Entrance
Lit branches, and a sign
The entrance runs as a timber-lined corridor with lit branches along it.
02 · STUDIO
Lunch, meeting, then a party
STUDIO is the most used room in the building. Coffee and vending machines make it a lunch spot and a place for a short meeting; in the evening it takes drinks and catering, and becomes where people from different teams actually meet.
03 · Meeting rooms
A different colour each
The meeting rooms are finished in different colours and textures — a purple carpet, a green wall, grey tile, a timber table — so each is easy to name without a number.
04 · GARDEN
Balls under the chairs
GARDEN is the working half. The chairs sit on exercise balls, the standing booths take meetings held upright, and the whole floor is free address so that nobody has a fixed neighbour.
05 · Paperless
What is not there
Everyone has a laptop and a smartphone, and documents live in the cloud, so meetings happen without paper — which is what allows a floor like this to work at all.
