Oxford Instruments — Tokyo: a “seamless” office and lab where the maintenance room is allowed to stay full

Concept

Seamless

Oxford Instruments had been split between Tennozu and Nihonbashi, which made it hard to talk to other departments and to customers. The move also had to improve the showroom and give the Japanese base of a global company more presence.

The concept proposed was “Seamless”: taking down the walls inside the office, physical and psychological, so that teams, departments, the whole company and customers connect on the same level. It is both a central office and a development base, and it aims to pass on the founder’s values of enterprise, exchange and trust.

01 · Café

Between the showroom and the desks

A café area sits between the showroom and the work area, so that people from inside and outside drop in. Corridors are wide and the showroom is open.

02 · Eight spaces

Choose by task and mood

Remote work meant a fixed desk was no longer needed, so seating changed to choice. Eight kinds of space — for focus, team camps, regular meetings, a change of mood and more — are spread across the office, and people’s routes cross naturally.

The design uses Japanese touches meant to speak to the world, plenty of warm wood, and planting where the sun comes in and where people gather. Work areas balance open and closed.

03 · Maintenance

Full of boxes, on purpose

The equipment maintenance area is full of cardboard boxes and machines — something usually forbidden in a free-seating office. But for engineers in research, development and service, having materials within reach is what makes them comfortable and productive, and the office allows it.

04 · Afterwards

More talk, more visitors

Since the move, communication has increased and walls between departments and generations are coming down, the designers say, and showroom visits are up. Used furniture was donated and environmentally considered materials were used.