This is a corporate interior project for an international shipping company based in Tokyo. The floor plan is a rectangular space, in which a split of three programmatic bands is placed, running parallel along the building facade. Each band has it’s own function. The first band contains the work area with workstations and is placed along with the exterior windows to optimise the daylight for the staff.
In the centre of the space, a row of meeting rooms and telephone booths is placed. These meeting rooms have glass partitions on the work area and corridor side, the glass is partly frosted on both sides to avoid distraction from people passing by. On the inside of all the meeting rooms, the walls and ceilings are clad with cement board panels to optimise the acoustics. At the back of the meeting rooms, close to the work area, two small phone booths are placed. Opposite those phone booths are two sets of bench seating for informal group discussions.
On the opposite side, the block of meeting rooms ends in a dry kitchen which morphs into a multipurpose space. The client requested this space to be used not only as a break-out cafe but also for town hall meetings, and as a touch-down free-address working space.
A colour scheme of various shades of light grey has been used throughout most of the workspace and meeting rooms. The multi-purpose space is contrasted from the rest of the space through the use of wood. The corporate colour has been added by using the light-green grouting for the tiles in the kitchen and kitchen counter.
The colour scheme of various shades of grey was used to evoke the Northern seas and sky where 2W Oceans originated. The cloud-like frosting on the glass of the meeting rooms filters blurs and distorts the daylight through these rooms into the corridor.
Project Data:
Location: Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Area: 750m2
Project year: 2019
Programme: Office
Scope:
Programme, Design development, Interior design
Project team: Martin van der Linden, Ayumu Ota, Dhruv Kohli, Yoko Kimura, Romane Negre.
Partners:
Project Management: CBRE, Stefan Bekker
Photography: Josh Lieberman
About van der Architects:
van der Architects is a Tokyo-based, international architecture firm. We focus on providing creative solutions to work-place related issues. We have also designed airport lounges, renovated embassies, built houses and provided bonafide design services for an after-school and community-centre in the earth-quake affected area in North Japan.
The firm was founded in 2001 in Tokyo by Martin van der Linden, a Dutch architect educated in the Netherlands, Japan, and the UK.
