The office, perhaps more than any other single building type of the present day, carries the true notions of the ideologies it is born in.
The R4 building addresses the question how scale and location inform an inner-city office type, and how exactly this contextual necessity might in fact perfectly reflect an environment of unforced, informal, perhaps even natural work efficiency.
We performed the interior design for the Tokyo office of AKQA, a global ideas and innovation company. Since their office is located on the first basement floor, we strived to create an appealing environment where the agency could pursue its developmental and creative activities by using the site’s open spaces, six-meter ceilings and natural lighting.
In recent years, various renovation projects have been attempted for a warehouse building, at which a legendary disco, “Juliana’s Tokyo”, once existed as a symbol of the Tokyo waterfront in the early 1990s. However, the attic part of the former discotheque on the second floor remained untouched for a long time, since it had a low ceiling height of 2.1m with only 1.7m under the beams, causing an oppressive feeling in the space.
A three-story office and retail complex in the Minami Aoyama area of Tokyo, Aoyama 346 is an interplay of multiple green triangles, which articulate the liminal spaces that intermediate between the interior and the exterior of the building. The design is also a response to the client’s request to create “an urban oasis” in the very heart of the city.
Blue Bottle Coffee (from Oakland, California) opened their first roastery/café in Japan, to operate as the production base of Blue Bottle Coffee Japan. Schemata Architects was commissioned to renovate the former storage building at Kiyosumi Shirakawa in Tokyo to accommodate roastery, café, office, barista training room and pastry factory. Blue Bottle Coffee is a leader of the third-wave coffee companies; they strive to achieve the best flavor and aroma, while promoting fair-trade and improving the labor environment of coffee farms, to construct a balanced production circle and to develop a positive relationship in which baristas and consumers raise awareness and grow up together.
We designed a playful and exciting environment suitable for implementing this kindergarten’s educational policy, which focuses on bringing up children that can think, learn and act independently. In doing so, we created a space in which seasonal changes can be experienced to the fullest by taking advantage of the glass windows facing a garden outside of the building to usher the great outdoors into the kindergarten.
Yamada Sen-I Co., Ltd. is a furoshiki (wrapping cloth) manufacturer based in Kyoto and we performed the renovations for their directly-managed official shop; “Musubi.” Since the store is located in a quiet area of Harajuku, Tokyo, deliverable included a space to showcase the furoshiki designs on sale by increasing available store space and improving the visibility of the store’s interior.
We performed the interior design for a store by Aesop, an Australian skin care brand, located in Tokyo Midtown. The site itself, posed some restrictions due to its size – a narrow 3.8m entrance width, 5.8m depth and 3.2m ceiling height.
Article source: Wiel Arets, Satoru Umehara, Alex Kunnen
This compact private residence is nestled within the dense expanse of Tokyo, in Nishi-Azabu—a neighborhood characterized by narrow streets and traditional low-rise houses—which borders a park heavily visited during the spring, when the city’s cherry trees begin to bloom. Its 136-square-meter area consists of five horizontally divided spaces, each connected by a minuscule sculptural spiraling staircase that, given the footprint of the house, allows for loft-like spaces within its intimate confines. Oversized windows punctuate the house, each with two layers of glazing; one is transparent and one is of the same relief glass that wraps the façade. These oversized windows, with their dual layers of glazing, can be countlessly reconfigured, to regulate the interior flow of daylight.
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