Archtober is nearly upon us, and the designtastic autumnal fun gets off to an urbane start with City Modern, celebrating the best in New York design and architecture. Now in its second year, the collaboration between Dwell Media and New York magazine kicks off next Friday with a Meet the Architects celebration, followed by a weekend of City Modern home tours in Manhattan and Brooklyn (the one pictured at right is “Skyhouse,” a project by architect David Hotson and interior designer Ghislaine Viñas that occupies a previously vacant four-story penthouse at the summit of one of the oldest surviving skyscrapers in NYC). The week continues with programming led by New York design editor Wendy Goodman and Dwell editor-in-chief Amanda Dameron, including a sure-to-be-stimulating conversation among Paola Antonelli of MoMA, the one and only Michael Bierut, and architecture critic Justin Davidson about “What Design can Do For New York City.” Get the full scoop on all eight event-packed days here.
Monolithic limestone totems and cast bronze pedestals punctuate the interior of this Milanese fashion boutique by architect Claudio Silvestrin (+ slideshow).
Claudio Silvestrin combined natural materials including leather and different types of stone to give the interior of the Giada store in Milan’s Montenapoleone fashion district a luxurious feel.
Regimented rows of roughly-hewn limestone columns create a textural backdrop to the clothes, which are hung on geometric metal rails.
The changing rooms feature walls and floors made from leather with handles given an antique bronze finish.
Blocks of cast bronze with differing dimensions provide pedestals for the products, a display island, a screen for the cash desk and a bench in the VIP room.
Rectilinear white leather armchairs continue the geometric theme.
A water feature runs along one of the walls, which are made from porphyry stone with a water-jet finish.
News: these exclusive images reveal the first in a chain of boutiques that Zaha Hadid is designing for American shoe designer Stuart Weitzman.
Opening tomorrow, the first store is located on Via Sant’Andrea in Milan and features a monochrome interior where curved forms will integrate modular shelving systems with seating areas for customers.
Zaha Hadid will also design five further interiors for the Stuart Weitzman brand, with stores in Hong Kong, Rome and New York planned for 2014.
A new concept will be developed for each location, but Hadid says they will all feel like part of the same family. “The design is divided into invariant and adaptive elements to establish unique relationships within each worldwide location, yet also enable every store to be recognised as a Stuart Weitzman space,” she explained.
“This is a major new initiative that will help achieve the next phase of growth and raise brand recognition worldwide,” added Weitzman. “I know that the marriage of Zaha Hadid’s incredible architecture and my collection will create a one-of-a-kind retail experience.”
Stuart Weitzman debuts innovative retail initiative with Zaha Hadid in Milan
Five additional Zaha Hadid-designed retail stores planned
Stuart Weitzman will debut an innovative retail concept designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid with the opening of an international flagship store on the iconic Via Sant’Andrea in Milan, Italy. The 3,000-square-foot boutique will be unveiled in mid-September during an exclusive Milan Fashion Week event hosted by designer Stuart Weitzman and the iconic Kate Moss, who stars in the brand’s fall campaign.
The six-window storefront located at Via Sant’Andrea, 10/A was chosen as the debut location for the new retail concept because of its reputation as one of the world’s premiere shopping destinations. Additional flagship stores designed by Zaha Hadid Architects are planned over the next few years and will be strategically located around the globe. 2014 openings are slated for Hong Kong, Rome and New York.
As Stuart Weitzman is at the forefront of style and design, the selection of Zaha Hadid to develop these retail concept stores reinforces his vision and commitment to breaking new ground. The MAXXI: National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, Italy and the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games demonstrate the spatial sensibility of her work. Further seminal buildings such as the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati and the Guangzhou Opera House in China have also been hailed as architecture that transforms our idea of the future with innovative concepts and bold, visionary forms.
The Milan flagship is fluid and playful. A dialogue of geometry and materiality creates an enchanting rhythm of folds and recesses further shaped by functional and ergonomic considerations. Modular display units showcase shoes and also provide seating, while a seamless integration of diverse forms invites our curiosity. The juxtaposition of these distinct elements of the design defines the different areas of the store. Rooted in a palette of subtle monochromatic shades, Hadid created an interior landscape of discovery centred on two separate zones to enhance the relationship between the customer and the collection.
Experimentation with materials and construction technologies further define the unique space. The curved modular seating and freestanding display elements have been constructed from fibreglass dipped in rose gold – a technique similar to that used in boat manufacturing. Also, the glass-reinforced concrete (GRC) of the store’s walls and ceiling expresses solidity whilst at the same time the delicate precision of complex curvatures focus on special areas for display.
The opening of the Milan flagship boutique also marks the 100th Stuart Weitzman global retail store. This collaboration with Zaha Hadid Architects is a major component of the strategic global retail expansion of the Stuart Weitzman brand within the luxury sector. International growth includes an emphasis in Asia, especially Mainland China over next three years with additional stores planned for Korea, Taiwan, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, India and Philippines.
Movie: Miguel Fluxá, head of shoe brand Camper, says the company’s use of high-profile designers for its stores is more about brand-building than making money in this movie filmed at the opening of the latest New York store.
Fluxá says the company took this approach to its store design when it first started expanding outside of Spain.
“We thought it was interesting not to repeat [the design of the Spanish stores],” he explains. “The world today is becoming a little bit boring, everything is becoming the same. So we thought it was interesting for the brand, and for the cities, to do different designs from one place to the other.”
Camper is a family-owned company; Fluxá’s great-grandfather, a Mallorca farmer, founded the business in 1877 and his father went on to establish the brand as we know it today in the 1970s.
Fluxá says that this allows the company to experiment with different design approaches for its stores without worrying about the commercial impact.
Staff at the original Camper factory founded in 1877
“We’re lucky to be a privately-owned company, a family-owned company, so we look at the long term and we try to do things that we like to do,” he says.
“Of course, we think it’s of benefit to the brand. It’s given a lot of identity to the brand, and customers recognise it. Some concepts work better than others but the reality is that we don’t measure it.”
Shanan Campanaro brings the soul of an artist and the sharp eye of a fashion-savvy graphic designer to Eskayel, a collection of custom wallcoverings that has rapidly expanded into fabrics, rugs, and decorative products such as enchanting pillows, scarves, and stationery. Educated at Central St Martins, Brooklyn-based Campanaro developed Eskayel’s distinctive style—painterly and organic yet contemporary and at times downright futuristic—by mixing the handmade and the digitally manipulated. She uses watercolors and soluble watercolor pens to create paintings, scans them, and then plays around with their pixels. This week marks the launch of “Cosmos” (pictured below), a collection of starry, outer space-inspired patterned pillows made in collaboration with ABC Home. She talked with us about the out-of-this-world pillows, the origins of Eskayel, and how she keeps the company’s products eco-friendly.
How did you begin Eskayel? I made some wallpaper for my house out of a design from one of my paintings, and then decided to try and make a whole collection and enter into a design show in Brooklyn.
Environmental responsibility is an important aspect of Eskayel—has that commitment been challenging to sustain as your business has grown? Well, we are so committed to staying as green as possible that it just means certain things that might make our product less expensive or more commercially viable are off-limits. For example, producing overseas or using vinyl. There are a ton of innovations in technology that have come along that have made things easier for us. Because of these innovations, our contract paper is recycled and the paper substrate with the contract requirements is a relatively new product. Also, the latex digital printers which use water-based inks and have the durability of solvent printers (which off-gas, and have not been an option for us in the past) have really expanded our capabilities.
How did the collaboration with ABC Home come about? We met buyers from ABC several years ago at ICFF [the International Contemporary Furniture Fair], but it really all started when Paulette Cole, the owner, saw our Poolside collection at ICFF in 2012. The standard Eskayel line was selling well, so they wanted some exclusive patterns for ABC from us, so we designed the Cosmos collection for them and collaborated on furniture. The Cosmos collection ships today, so it should be in stores any moment! continued…
This seaside studio apartment in Barcelona by Spanish studio Colombo and Serboli Architecture has an all-white interior that includes a tiled kitchen and bathroom that can be hidden away (+ slideshow).
Colombo and Serboli Architecture designed the apartment for an art historian and curator who asked for a plain space where he could display his art, music and books.
“The client envisioned a peaceful, open and essential space, furnished with a few carefully selected objects,” said the studio. “In sum, [it is] a peaceful place for introspection, flooded with light.”
The space contains a combined living room and bedroom, with a small kitchenette and bathroom on one side that can be hidden away behind a sliding door and folding panel.
Lighting fixtures are tucked out of sight in the kitchen shelves and around the bathroom, while a light suspended above the window frame illuminates the outdoor space.
The tiled walls are set against dark grey grouting, while other details include white furniture and a resin floor.
A glazed wall comprising a door and several windows leads out onto a shaded outdoor terrace.
The renovation of this 36 square metre apartment came with a defined brief. The client, a French Art historian and curator, professor at the Sorbonne University, came to us with very clear ideas for his small property.
The apartment, located in the city centre of the coast town of Sitges (a few steps from the beach) is completely introverted, facing only an interior courtyard. The lack of views is compensated by silence and light.
The client envisioned a peaceful, open and essential space, furnished with a few carefully selected objects; contemporary artworks, some books, and his records. In sum, a peaceful place for introspection, flooded with light.
An extremely reduced budget asked for simple, inexpensive solutions. The space is conceived through three different blocks: the bathroom/kitchen block, the living/bedroom one and the third, external, the terrace. The last two are extremely permeable, only divided by a large window and a long, oversized louvers one on the bedroom side, both existing elements that were preserved.
The big opening connects a small terrace (11 square meters), unified with the interiors through the use of the continuous white resin flooring and a blank parasol that provides privacy while diffusing the daylight. Indoor and outdoor are therefore connected as a continuous living space.
The Quaderna table (Superstudio 1970), a piece our client desired to incorporate since the project started, inspired the tiles that clad bathroom/kitchen block. The white matte 3x3cm tiles reproduce the table’s grid and are the only texture allowed in the whole project. This block is connected with the living/bedroom area through an opening that reveals the tiles used inside the bathroom.
The same texture was also used inside the kitchen unit, creating a continuous spatial sequence through the consistency of texture, which appears once opened its horizontal book- door. The tiles also disguise the sliding door that leads to the toilet. All containers, such as in the kitchen unit and the closet in the bedroom area, are carefully hidden through the use of white doors.
We took our client’s desire of an all-white space quite literally, to the extreme of choosing this colour for the kitchen sink and all the streamlined taps of kitchen, wash hand basin and shower are matt white (Via Manzoni series by Gessi). All the lighting has been solved through the use of florescent tubes, hidden into the kitchen shelves or displayed like in the bathroom. A line of florescent light suspended on the window frame dividing living and terrace illuminates the indoor and the outdoor space, unifying them. On the outer face of the terrace balustrade, a bright, evergreen, large climber plant covers the wall, defining the threshold of the white space of the project.
The apartment is brought to life through the pieces the client chose. French artist Fabrice Hiber, of which our client is curator, is to perform a graphic piece on one of the walls of the living. A Daniel Riera photo is upon the bed head. Two prints by Cuban artist Félix González-Torres (with the writings “Somewhere Better Then This Place” e “Nowhere Better Then This Place”) are on the bathroom wall. A Hedi Slimane photo, sandwiched in plexiglass became the music table. Next to it, a Muji sofa, futon-like, rigorously white. A military camp table that collapse to form a briefcase and two interweaved raffia wooden chairs from the ’60 furnish the terrace.
Spanish studio 2260mm Architects designed the interior for a family, partially dismantling an old house in the neighbourhood of Gracia. The architects inserted an extra storey and added a tiled courtyard filled with potted plants to bring more light into the ground floor.
Most of the decorative tiles were retained and surrounded by new, grey tiles, forming the floors of two bedrooms, a kitchen and dining room and the hallways.
“The tiles are from the early twentieth century and were often used in houses and apartments in Barcelona,” architect Manel Casellas told Dezeen.
“Most of the tiles in the corridor and the bedrooms are located in the original place. In the living room and the kitchen we designed ‘carpets’ with some existing coloured tiles,” he added, explaining the arrangement.
Part of the roof had to be removed to add the new first floor, providing a bedroom and indoor balcony with wooden floorboards.
Wooden ceiling beams are left exposed on both floors, but are painted white on the first floor.
Although it was dark, its facades face to the street and the inner garden. The project partially disassemble the house and maintains structure and distribution: a new interior courtyard illuminates the ground floor and gives the kitchen some facade.
We have used a dry construction system, with a new floor of wooden beams, OSB boards, wood fibre insulation and wooden floor. The new facade is isolated from the outside with wood fibreboard. We maintained pre-existing characteristics: interior woodwork and old tiles.
This former butchers shop in Barcelona has been converted into a shoe shop furnished with wooden pallets, ropes and tyres (+ slideshow).
Spanish firm Dom Arquitectura and Rwanda-based Asa Studio renovated the narrow interior by stripping away the tiles that used to line the walls then painting over the rough plastered surface and blobs of leftover adhesive with a grey glaze.
Display units made of pallets slung from the ceiling on ropes are used to showcase the Ethiopian brand’s range of shoes.
Tyres are hung from the ceiling by thick lengths of rope as decoration, while the ceiling is strung with extra lengths of rope and spotlights.
Metal work benches stretch down one side of the store with space to hold shoe boxes underneath, steel plates protrude from gaps in the pallets on the wall to form individual platforms for the shoes and a folded steel plate stretches in front of the window to display footwear to passersby.
“We had a very small place and a very limited budget,” the studio said. “We decided to use natural materials and neutral colours to highlight the product. The colourful shoes should be the element that attracts and stands out to the street walker and the future client.”
SoleRebels is an Ethiopian brand of shoes from Africa. They surprise us with recycled materials, colourful shoes and originality. Its purpose was implant the brand in Barcelona for the first time.
Located in Gracia, we had a very small place and a very limited budget. The place was an old butcher with white and bright tiled walls.
The coating did not fit with the brand and with the image that we wanted for the store. So we took out the tiles, but decided to leave the plaster gobs that held them, and paint in that textured walls with a stone grey with a grey glaze, so we keep alive part of the place history.
Store display design
Ahead the walls, as a new layer, we proposed a number of recycled items, such as pallets, ropes and wheels that fit with the brand image and the idea that we wanted to convey. With minimal resources we bet for a sustainable and original design.
Interior renovation and plans
We decided to use natural materials and neutral colours to highlight the product. The colourful shoes should be the element that attract and stand out the street walker and future client. One iron piece in “U” form wrap the space and allows us to exhibit the most outstanding shoes. One store side is lined with pallets, which helps to increase exposure while gives warmth to the space.
Some ropes tied to the pallets go up by the ceiling to come down to the other store side, where they also hold several wheels, reused to promote featured shoes. Everything is held between both sides and generates a sustainable tension.
Recycle step by step project: Dom Arquitectura + Asa Studio Surface: 26 metres squared
Turntables and Tokyobikes will be available to hire at the latest addition to the Ace Hotel chain, designed by London practice Universal Design Studio and opening later this month in Shoreditch.
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby’s Universal Design Studio designed the interior and exterior of the 258-room hotel on Shoreditch High Street, behind a new facade designed by the team.
Dark engineering brick will clad the ground floor, with lighter rendering on the upper storeys.
“Both exterior and interior design focus on traditional craftsmanship, embedding the space within the historic context and material heritage of Shoreditch,” said Universal Design Studio director Jason Holley.
A large glass-walled event space on top will have panoramic views of London and the basement will feature a bar and performance space. The hotel will also contain a flower shop, brasserie, takeaway juice bar and cafe.
Cork ceilings fitted with custom copper light fixtures and timber parquet flooring are to be installed in communal areas on the ground floor.
Original work by local artists will adorn walls of the minimal bedrooms, in some of which guests can request to have Martin guitars and Rega RP1 turntables. Guests will also be able to hire bicycles to explore the city from local shop Tokyobike.
Monochrome tiles will line the bathrooms, which will feature mirror-faced bathtubs and lights designed for outside.
Ace Hotel worked with London-based architecture and interior design firm Universal Design Studio to design exteriors and interiors, including 258 guest rooms, an 1,800 square foot seventh floor event space, a 2,700 square foot restaurant, Hoi Polloi, and a 3,900 square foot lounge and reception area comprised of retail units, a bar, café and art gallery. Our approach was to tune in to the authentic voice of Shoreditch, to engage local artists, craftspersons and builders to foster a sense of place at home with its surroundings, a place that is, according to Ace co-founder Alex Calderwood, “of London and for London.”
Known for their distinctive design aesthetic, recognisable for its simplicity and clever use of material details, and a bespoke approach to each client, Universal Design Studio was a natural choice to help translate the Ace ethos into a London vernacular. Both exterior and interior design focus on traditional craftsmanship, embedding the space within the historic context and material heritage of Shoreditch. Material choices are informed by East London’s longstanding role as a centre for the performing arts, as well as a historic home to skilled trades like shoemaking, furniture making, rope making, ship building and silk weaving.
External rendering by Forbes Massie
Façade & Exterior Details
Immediately facing a conservation area, the area surrounding Ace Hotel London Shoreditch has a rich architectural history, composed of a tightly knit grain of warehouses, shops, residential and industrial buildings. The intent of the façade is to mesh with the urban fabric around us. Contemporary takes on traditional material cues use expressive brickwork, infill and pattern to reanimate the street level of the building, bringing activity to the front and breaking the façade into a number of independent units and uses. Dark ‘engineering brick’, often found in traditional utilitarian buildings is used to ground the base in local tradition. A rich mixture of textural changes — brick bonds and receded bricks alongside glazed and unglazed patterning — create a series of distinct identities across the span of the façade. In reference to local metalwork traditions, Crittall windows, doors and industrial elements like grids, cast bronze, galvanised steel and waxed finishes add to the authentically local character.
Public Areas
Communal areas at Ace Hotel London Shoreditch include the ground floor lobby, a communal table, café, lobby bar and gallery space. The lobby is envisioned as a hub for interaction for hotel guests as well as the surrounding community, and continues the real-Shoreditch tone set by the exterior, with common local materials like brick, metalwork and Crittall glazing. A series of room-like zones are created through furniture arrangements and a series of full-height Crittall glass and steel screens, inviting the language of articulated shop fronts, that begins with the façade, indoors. A cork ceiling fitted with custom copper light fixtures and timber parquet flooring steeps the setting in the local visual culture.
A rich theatrical history is reflected in moments throughout the communal spaces as well, like a custom theatre-style light grid installed in the external entrance foyer. Ace Hotel London Shoreditch sits on the original site of the Shoreditch Empire, later the London Music Hall. The Empire, designed by prolific theatrical architect Frank Matcham, opened in 1856 and played host to stars like Charlie Chaplin.
In the lobby bar area, a lighter colour of brick, articulated brick patterns, and a skylight that draws natural daylight lend to the uniqueness of the space. Artist Max Lamb was commissioned to design the bar cladding, bar stools and cocktail tables. A long, sixteen-seat communal work table by Benchmark in the lobby is a bespoke piece made of cast iron, oak and copper which can be used as an informal meeting or work space.
The café features a range of rich finishes including handmade tiles and patterned timber floors. The gallery space will rotate artist exhibitions and we’re collaborating with local artists on details throughout the lobby.
External rendering by Forbes Massie
Restaurant Concept
At Hoi Polloi, Universal and Atelier Ace worked with the Hoi Polloi team to create an English modernist brasserie inspired by mid-twentieth century European bistros. Stepping in from bustling Shoreditch High Street, Hattie Fox’s That Flower Shop is a floral interlude before discovering the restaurant. On entering Hoi Polloi, guests encounter an informal bar area made up of a series of banquette booths. The high-ceilinged space accommodates a variety of paces — fast-moving and leisurely. Moving into the main dining space, soft banquette seating creates a range of areas focused around a central seating section. A sense of spontaneity fosters the feeling of ‘an occasion,’ somewhere for everyday, yet special every time. It’s a dynamic space, as ideal for daytimes spent working on a laptop as it is for evening drinks or supper.
Design details include a complex palette of materials like fluted timber-paneled walls with horizontally mirrored panels to create further depth. The bar is wrapped with natural stone while banquettes are finished in leather. Flecked linoleum tabletops contrast with stone surfaces, while Douglas Fir-paneled banquettes standout against warm Iroko timber wall panels. Hexagonal timber flooring in the bar area shifts to encaustic ceramic tiles in the dining room. Polished brass light fixtures sit on low walls behind banquette seating and custom pendant lights by Philippe Malouin light the main dining space. Ercol Love Seats and classic Butterfly chairs echo classic British dining rooms.
Guest Rooms
The approach to the guest rooms was to think of them as a friend’s Shoreditch apartment, a collection of furniture and objects acquired over time, each with stories and memories attached. Each guest finds a curated shelf with a distinct identity and experience of place — useful crafted elements (maps, sketch pads) from local makers, records, books, a pin-up cork board and found curiosities. This magnetic shelf by T Nevill & Co. can be changed or added to by guests during their visit.
A utilitarian colour palette on the walls of the rooms creates a modest shell, a low-key canvas for simple but considered bespoke elements like folding metal display shelving, matte-finish oak bed platforms and expansive daybeds with reverse-denim upholstery. The full-width daybed encourages social interaction and a round table replaces the standard hotel room desk with something more domestic and multi-functional. The mixture of matte-finish solid white European oak, black powder- coated metal and fabrics add texture in consonance with the cool, pared-back approach throughout, to allow for curated objects to stand out.
Custom tile patterns, mirror-faced bathtubs and ‘exterior’ light fittings in bathrooms are complementary patterns against a monochrome palette.
Lovage
Lovage is a seasonal farm-to-street elixir and treat stand rooted in the essentials of British folk medicine and based on the idea that wellness comes from nature. The menu content will change seasonally and the interior walls will transition accordingly from white washed spruce to dark, charred cedar panels. The reversible panels are hung from raw breeze block walls with blackened steel barnyard ironmongery, a material gesture inspired by unfussy, rural Japanese kitchens and traditional village apothecaries.
Other notes include cast bronze light fixtures and a Noren curtain made of vintage boro fabric, contrasted with stainless steel work surfaces and a floor made of black hexagonal encaustic tiles. Signage and graphics are screen-printed on plywood. The warm, earthen atmosphere, set against a clean, utilitarian space complements the objective of providing natural, holistic sustenance in the midst of travel and work.
Tomato vines suspended over conference tables and broccoli fields in the reception are part of working life at this Japan office by Kono Designs (+ slideshow).
New York firm Kono Designs created the urban farm in 2010, in a nine-storey office building in Tokyo to allow employees to grow and harvest their own food at work. Dezeen spoke with company principal Yoshimi Kono this week to hear more about the project.
“Workers in nearby buildings can be seen pointing out and talking about new flowers and plants and even the seasons – all in the middle of a busy intersection in Tokyo’s metropolitan area,” Kono told Dezeen. “The change in the way local people think and what they talk about was always one of the long-term goals of the project.”
The creation of the new headquarters for Japanese recruitment firm Pasona consisted of refurbishing a 50 year old building to include office areas, an auditorium, cafeterias, a rooftop garden and urban farming facilities. Inside the 19,974 square metre office building there are 3995 square metres dedicated to green space that house over 200 species of plants, fruits, vegetables and rice.
Kono told Dezeen that all of the food is harvested, prepared and served on-site in the cafeterias – making Pasona’s Urban Farm the largest farm-to-table office scheme in Japan.
Pasona employees are encourage to maintain and harvest the crops and are supported by a team of agricultural specialists.
“My client has a larger vision to help create new farmers in urban areas of Japan and a renewed interest in that lifestyle,” Kono told Dezeen.
“One way to encourage this is to not just tell urban communities about farms and plants, but to actively engage with them through both a visual intervention in their busy lifestyle and educational programs focusing on farming methods and practices that are common in Japan,” he added.
The building has a double-skin green facade where flowers and orange trees are planted on small balconies. From the outside, the office block appears to be draped in green foliage.
“The design focus was not on the imposed standards of green, where energy offsets and strict efficiency rates rule,” said Kono. “But rather on an idea of a green building that can change the way people think about their daily lives and even their own personal career choice and life path.”
Inside the offices, tomato vines are suspended above conference tables, lemon and passion fruit trees are used as partitions for meeting spaces, salad leaves are grown inside seminar rooms and bean sprouts are grown under benches.
Plants hang in bags surrounding meeting desks and there are vines growing within vertical cages and wooden plant boxes around the building.
Ducts, pipes and vertical shafts were rerouted to the perimeter of the building to allow for maximum height ceilings and a climate control system is used to monitor humidity, temperature and air flow in the building to ensure it is safe for the employees and suitable for the farm.
“It is important not to just think about how we can use our natural resources better from a distance, but to actively engage with nature and create new groups of people who have a deep interest and respect for the world they live in,” said Kono.
“It is important to note that this is not a passive building with plants on the walls, this is an actively growing building, with plantings used for educational workshops where Pasona employees and outside community members can come in and learn farming practices.”
Yoshimi Kono studied architecture in Tokyo and was a chief designer with Shigeru Uchida at Studio 80 in Tokyo and later became partner at Vignelli Associates in New York. He founded Kono Designs in 2000.
Located in down-town Tokyo, Pasona HQ is a nine story high, 215,000 square foot corporate office building for a Japanese recruitment company, Pasona Group. Instead of building a new structure from ground up, an existing 50 years old building was renovated, keeping its building envelope and superstructure.
The project consists of a double-skin green facade, offices, an auditorium, cafeterias, a rooftop garden and most notably, urban farming facilities integrated within the building. The green space totals over 43,000 square feet with 200 species including fruits, vegetables and rice that are harvested, prepared and served at the cafeterias within the building. It is the largest and most direct farm-to-table of its kind ever realised inside an office building in Japan.
The double-skin green facade features seasonal flowers and orange trees planted within the 3′ deep balconies. Partially relying on natural exterior climate, these plants create a living green wall and a dynamic identity to the public. This was a significant loss to the net rentable area for a commercial office. However, Pasona believed in the benefits of urban farm and green space to engage the public and to provide better workspace for their employees.
The balconies also help shade and insulate the interiors while providing fresh air with operable windows, a practical feature not only rare for a mid rise commercial building but also helps reduce heating and cooling loads of the building during moderate climate. The entire facade is then wrapped with deep grid of fins, creating further depth, volume and orders to the organic green wall.
Within the interior, the deep beams and large columns of the existing structure are arranged in a tight interval causing low interior ceiling of 7′-6″. With building services passing below, some area was even lower at 6′-8″. Instead, all ducts, pipes and their vertical shafts were re-routed to the perimeter, allowing maximum height with exposed ceilings between the beams.
Lightings are then installed, hidden on the bottom vertical edge of the beams, turning the spaces between the beams into a large light cove without further lowering the ceiling. This lighting method, used throughout the workspace from second floor to 9th floor, achieved 30% less energy than the conventional ceiling mounted method.
Besides creating a better work environment, Pasona also understands that in Japan opportunities for job placement into farming are very limited because of the steady decline of farming within the country. Instead, Pasona focuses on educating and cultivating next generation of farmers by offering public seminars, lectures and internship programs.
The programs empower students with case studies, management skills and financial advices to promote both traditional and urban farming as lucrative professions and business opportunities. This was one of the main reason for Pasona to create urban farm within their headquarters in downtown Tokyo, aiming to reverse the declining trend in the number of farmers and to ensure sustainable future food production.
Currently, Japan produces less than one-third of their grain locally and imports over 50 million tons of food annually, which on average is transported over 9,000 miles, the highest in the world. As the crops harvested in Pasona HQ are served within the building cafeterias, it highlights ‘zero food mileage’ concept of a more sustainable food distribution system that reduces energy and transportation cost.
Japan’s reliance on imported food is due to its limited arable land. Merely 12% of its land is suitable for cultivation. Farmland in Pasona HQ is highly efficient urban arable land, stacked as a vertical farm with modern farming technology to maximise crop yields.
Despite the increased energy required in the upkeep of the plants, the project believes in the long term benefits and sustainability in recruiting new urban farmers to practice alternative food distribution and production by creating more urban farmland and reducing food mileage in Japan.
Using both hydroponic and soil based farming, in Pasona HQ, crops and office workers share a common space. For example, tomato vines are suspended above conference tables, lemon and passion fruit trees are used as partitions for meeting spaces, salad leaves are grown inside seminar rooms and bean sprouts are grown under benches.
The main lobby also features a rice paddy and a broccoli field. These crops are equipped with metal halide, HEFL, fluorescent and LED lamps and an automatic irrigation system. An intelligent climate control system monitors humidity, temperature and breeze to balance human comfort during office hours and optimise crop growth during after hours. This maximises crop yield and annual harvests.
Besides future sustainability of farmers, Pasona HQ’s urban farm is beyond visual and aesthetic improvement. It exposes city workers to growing crops and interaction with farmland on a daily basis and provides improvement in mental health, productivity and relaxation in the workplace. Studies show that most people in urbanised societies spend over 80% of their time indoors. Plants are also known to improve the air quality we breathe by carbon sequestration and removing volatile organic compound. A sampling on the air at Pasona HQ have shown reduction of carbon dioxide where plants are abundant. Such improvement on the air quality can increase productivity at work by 12%, improves common symptoms of discomfort and ailments at work by 23%, reduce absenteeism and staff turnover cost.
Typical office floor – click for larger image
Employees of Pasona HQ are asked to participate in the maintenance and harvesting of crops with the help of agricultural specialists. Such activity encourages social interaction among employees leading to better teamwork on the job. It also provides them with a sense of responsibility and accomplishment in growing and maintaining the crops that are ultimately prepared and served to their fellow co-workers at the building’s cafeterias.
Section showing facade and balconies
Pasona Urban Farm is a unique workplace environment that promotes higher work efficiency, social interaction, future sustainability and engages the wider community of Tokyo by showcasing the benefits and technology of urban agriculture.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
Archtober is nearly upon us, and the designtastic autumnal fun gets off to an urbane start with City Modern, celebrating the best in New York design and architecture. Now in its second year, the collaboration between Dwell Media and New York magazine kicks off next Friday with a Meet the Architects celebration, followed by a weekend of City Modern home tours in Manhattan and Brooklyn (the one pictured at right is “Skyhouse,” a project by architect David Hotson and interior designer Ghislaine Viñas that occupies a previously vacant four-story penthouse at the summit of one of the oldest surviving skyscrapers in NYC). The week continues with programming led by New York design editor Wendy Goodman and Dwell editor-in-chief Amanda Dameron, including a sure-to-be-stimulating conversation among Paola Antonelli of MoMA, the one and only Michael Bierut, and architecture critic Justin Davidson about “What Design can Do For New York City.” Get the full scoop on all eight event-packed days here.
Shanan Campanaro brings the soul of an artist and the sharp eye of a fashion-savvy graphic designer to 
