Yanaidenki office

photo Toshiyuki Yano

Yanaidenki office

Oita,Japan
2018.08
Office
1000m2

A plan to renovate the offices of a trading company. We were asked to create a pillar-free open office space with a floor area of 1,000m2, where 120 employees mingle with and understand and influence each other in different departments. I thought it is better for a space like a large volume sports facility to create a landscape plan rather than to make an interior plan. It seemed to me that planning in such a way would lead to an open office. The first thing I did was to provide a line of circles to lead the movement of people, in whole of the space. This three-dimensional line is like an earthwork with lockers inside, and the inside of the circle is the field for office work, the outside is the field for meetings, breaks, presentations and other communication. In addition, outside of that, there are closed rooms for individual meetings, reception and toilets. On the other hand, for these horizontally expanding elements, a structure that “mountain” we called acts as a kind of spatial anchor.  The mountain is a circular, stair-stepped structure with an interior that serves as a common room. However, I didn’t dare to give it any function on the step, and instead just set it up as a “mountain” that exists there. The desks are like sheets spread out in a field at a picnic, following a certain rule, but each Employees were arranged to face different directions. Although they have loosely formed a cohesive group of departments, the interrelationships between them will eventually lead to emerge aisles as if animal trails. The skeleton ceiling has a high-side window by opening central of it. It improves the office environment by encouraging light and ventilation, and makes people feel more outdoor atmosphere by allowing natural light to fall on the office field.  In addition, there is a pathway that circulates through the field along the circular counter like an earthwork, and the area was also visualized in three dimensions by hanging aluminum plates above the pathway. As you move in this circle, you will always be in touch with each department, and that too, naturally.