Murata — Nagaokakyo and Shibuya: an atrium at the works, a tea room at the office

Concept

Daylight instead of ceiling lights

The head office is arranged around an atrium, and the company is direct about why: the office floors are high-ceilinged and column-free, and the daylight coming through the atrium both keeps the space easy to sit in and cuts the lighting load.

The Tokyo branch was refitted in April 2023 on a different principle — each floor zoned for activity-based working, so that a booth, a café table or a desk is a choice about the task rather than a fixed address.

01 · Head office, Nagaokakyo

Meeting, eating, gathering

Beyond the entrance are meeting spaces for visitors, a canteen renewed in January 2025 with counter and family-style seating, and a hall large enough for the whole site.

02 · Research building

Clean rooms, and offices beside them

The research and development building puts clean rooms and office floors in the same block, so the bench and the desk are a short walk apart.

03 · Tokyo branch, Shibuya

The global sales base

The Tokyo branch runs the group’s sales and marketing worldwide, and staff say several languages are in the air on any given day. Meeting areas and work floors were rebuilt together in the 2023 refit.

04 · The café, and the tea room

A tatami room inside an office café

A cafeteria was added on the top floor, and the café space below it holds something less usual: a tea room, laid with tatami, inside the office.