Rows of wooden pillars support various split-degree floors to create a forest-like come to feel inside the Nagoya workplace of Japanese architecture firm Mamiya Shinichi Layout Studio (+ slideshow).
Mamiya Shinichi Design and style Studio’s new offices are found in a suburb to the east of central Nagoya on a plot near to a occupied arterial road.
Externally the developing has a simple rectilinear type, but within it contains a series of platforms organized at different heights. These are all supported by wooden columns reminiscent of trees, hence the name Pillar Grove.
In accordance to the architects, the aim was to “develop the image of a fresh space that will perform a essential part in our company’s long term growth, encouraging rich communication in between the employees and exploring the choices of a wooden framework”.
The entirely open ground floor is interrupted only by the thirty timber columns – no load-bearing walls were required.
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The pillars are arranged in rows that extend from the external walls in direction of the centre of the area. They assistance a assortment of irregularly shaped slabs that form a multilayered sequence of potential workspaces.
Positioning the wooden supports about the edges of the interior allows partial views across the room that alter based on the viewing angle.
“[It is] a rich, uncommon area that gives the feeling of being in a grove, achieved through the sunlight shining down by means of windows on the walls surrounding the inside,” mentioned the staff.
Other interior architecture tasks that evoke a walk in the woods include a canteen in Spain with tree-like sculptures extending over its tables and a Japanese chapel with branching metal columns lining its aisle.
A straightforward folded metal staircase ascends from the ground floor to the biggest platform at the centre of the building.
Some of the surrounding amounts can be reached by stepping up or down from the central area, although wooden stairs and ladders supply accessibility to the other folks.
Features additional during the furnishing process include wooden railings along the edges of some of the increased ranges and big communal tables in the middle of the largest platform.
Gaps among the pillars have been filled with shelves that, when stacked with books and magazines, help to produce far more intimate spaces at all levels.
There are also several quirky information, including windows that are intersected by the platforms, and staircases that slot neatly in the gaps among the slabs.
The building’s exterior is defined as a straightforward geometric volume punctuated by often spaced square windows on each and every facade that lend it a classical aesthetic.
Photography is by Toshiyuki Yano.
Project credits:
Designer: Mamiya Shinichi Design and style Studio – Shinichi Mamiya
Design Staff: Shinichi Mamiya, Rintaro Kakeno
Structural Engineer: Tatsumi Terado Structural Studio – Tatsumi Terado
Notion diagram 
