TORAFU ARCHITECTS

A project of the business facility exclusively for use of the employees in a Korean leading IT company. For the project the five-floor building, located near Meguro station, with approx. 3,000m2 of the total area was renovated into a shared office space on the first floor and accommodation function on the 2nd - 5th floors. Just after the construction of the brand-new condominium was completed, the building was acquired and converted to accommodate approx. 50 business travelers coming to Tokyo each day. The facility should be a co-living type facility with an office function for the recent trend of diverse ways of working, providing a highly productive environment where the employees can work efficiently even when they are far away from their base. It also enables a cozy and comfortable environment like home.

Entering from the vehicle path, alongside the welcome wall with the facility’s name sign graphic, visitors find patterns created with curing sheet on the fences inviting them inside. A large space expanding from the entrance on the first floor is utilized not only as a reception and a co-working space but also lounge and dining area. This expansive space had been fundamentally divided into many small compartments used as flats for sole occupancy. Following the removal of some of the load bearing walls, we moved and reinforced others, and strengthened footing beams in the pit so that the vast space could turn into one large room with renovating traces and large outward opening windows.　After dismantling the floor above reception, the area is set to be a stairwell. The lounge around the stairwell has the deck material and furniture integrated with the floor and the handrail. In the front garden with the fruit farm, people can relax on the bench utilizing the base of the fence.
The upper floors have accommodation rooms, meeting rooms for teams called HIVE, workrooms where the employees concentrate on their work, and a fitness gym. The colored doors along the outside corridors add accents to the appearance of the building, enhancing the connection between the upper and lower floor. In all types of accommodation rooms, we commonly dismantled the ceiling, left the water section as original, and added individuality through the combinations of the furniture, the floor, and the curtains. The standard type of accommodation room centers around the main furniture and integrates a raised floor around the bed with the desk.

We redefined the building through the practical aspects, of changing the existing vehicle path to the main entrance and switching the finish of the floor to stepped slabs. While keeping the boundaries between the new and existing elements, we dealt with each part in an impromptu manner.