SpiderPlus — Toranomon: an office built out of what a building site is made of

Concept

Bring the customer’s material into the room

The company makes software used on construction sites, and it built its office out of the things those sites are made of — structural material used as the interior itself, so that the air of the customer’s world can be felt inside the company.

The result does not look like a construction site. It looks like an office where every surface is slightly unexpected: a great dark curved counter, sheet material folded into a ceiling, a circular garden set into the floor.

01 · Entrance and lounge

Curved, and open

The entrance carries the company name on a curved wall, and behind it the lounge opens under a void with planting and a stair.

02 · The curtains

Rooms made of cloth

One meeting area is divided by hanging curtains rather than walls, so the size of the room changes with the meeting.

03 · The counters

Shapes you have to look at twice

The most striking pieces are the counters: one in yellow with shelving cut into it, another a great dark sheet that folds down into a work surface with seating around it.

04 · The ceiling

Material, used flat

Elsewhere the same treatment is taken overhead, with a dark sheet running from the ceiling down to a run of seating and shelving.

05 · Café and steps

Where the floor rises

The café end is set against stepped concrete with planting above it, and takes round tables and chairs.

06 · Work floor and garden

Curves, and a garden in the middle

The work floor is arranged around curved timber elements, and in the centre of the plan sits a circular garden ringed in glass: real planting and stones, lit from above.