Shinkin Central Bank — Chūō: a bank for banks, with a creative area in it

Concept

A bank that has to be a headquarters for other people’s banks

A shinkin bank is a co-operative: it takes deposits in one town and lends them in the same town, and it is not allowed to grow out of that. Because each one is small and local, they need something above them that can move money between regions, hold their surplus and act for all of them at once. That is what this building is for.

It shows itself in two parts. The head office is the formal one — an entrance hall with a circular piece of sculpture in the glass, the name in gold characters on a dark wall, and a lounge under a ceiling cut in waves. The Kyōbashi annex is the working one, and it is where the language changes: the floor there carries English labels painted on the wall — COMMUNICATION AREA over a counter with stools, CREATIVE AREA over a corner behind low screens. It is an unusual thing to find in a central bank, and the labels are doing the work that a memo would otherwise have to do.

01 · The entrance

Glass, and a name in gold

The entrance hall is glazed and planted, with a circular piece of sculpture standing in it. Further in, the bank’s name is set in gold characters on a dark ground.

02 · The head office

A ceiling cut in waves

The lounge on the head-office side sits under a ceiling worked into a wave pattern, with green underfoot and low seating turned towards the glass.

03 · The Kyōbashi annex

Labelled in English, on the wall

The annex is entered along a wide corridor and opens into working floors. Two parts of it are named on the wall rather than on a plan: a communication area, which is a counter with high stools, and a creative area, which is a corner of the floor set behind low screens. Between them are the ordinary desks.

04 · Rooms for meeting

Three sizes

The meeting spaces are shown as a set: a long board-style room, a narrower one for a smaller group, and open seating for a discussion that does not need a door.

05 · The restaurant

Where the two buildings meet

The restaurant and cafeteria are shown last — a serving counter, then a room of pale tables and chairs large enough to take a floor at once.