Office in Forest / Aquaplannet headquarters building

■MAIN CONCEPT This is a headquarter-office project at Matsuzaka, Mie, Japan. The project‘s target is not on the value of the object view in respect to sculptural appearance of the building, but rather on the value of the environmental view with body experience. This office design connects interior to townscape offering wide range of perceptive qualities and options of workspace. The large volume, including working activities, is planned in the site with planted trees. Various places are created in the one volume with different width, height and depth, sceneries from a window and relationship between in-outside by designing inside spaces and gardens equivalently as spatial elements. The large reflective ceiling on the volume integrates inside elements with various colors and lights from outside – changing with different seasons, climates and time. Diversity of the garden transforms from one volume into a heterogeneous space with group of different places. Body experience in the volume changes dramatically according to seasons, weathers and activities. This project proposes a new approach to office design, which enables us to choose working places not only by function or work typology, but also by the experiential qualities of a space and its effect on the human body through reflected nature. ■DIAGRAM 01： Volumes and Gardens By expanding the design both inside and outside, it converts the entire site into a group of diverse spaces with different qualities. Ambiguous boundary between interior/exterior invites the colors of the forest every season and extends human spatial perception even beyond the site boundary to the urban townscape. ■DIAGRAM 02: Windows and Gardens The gardens change its colors every season. The reflective ceiling and the windows between the volumes invites the atmosphere of the forest, creating an integral landscape from the interior to the urban townscape. ■DATA SHEET Architect/Art Direction/Furniture + Sign Design: SUGAWARADAISUKE (Daisuke Sugawara) Support Architect: Engine Architects + Kitamura Corporation Landscape: Masae Kawai Construction: Kitamura Corporation Furniture Fabrication: STUDIO ANAGRAM.INC Photographer: Nacasa & Partners Inc. (Takeshi Nakasa) Location: Matsuzaka, Mie, JAPAN Design Period: Nov. 2009 – Jun. 2011 Construction Period: Jun. 2011 – Dec. 2011