Negroni River-side Factory & Office
2014
Location: Arakawa-ku, Tokyo
Major use: Factory, Office, Showroom
Completion: 2014
Total Floor Area: 235sqm
Structure : RC, Steel
Photo: No.2 by Nozomu Toyoshima, Others by Kowa Ikeuchi
“The complex of factory and showroom”
This is the interior renovation project going with moving the Japanese driving shoes factory. The site is in a factory area near Sumida-river having comfortable wind and the factory had been used by a builder. We were required to design the creative factory which had relationships to the showroom and office in order that could show and inform not only the products but also the manufacturing process by craftsmen. That’s why we proposed the very functional spaces respectively and they were organically related each other.
The upper floor which is used for both office and showroom has windows on the factory side wall in order to communicate with the floor downstairs factory. It also has a counter gallery around the room so that the one room space can offer a sense of unity. In addition, we designed to divide the space into the office, meeting and entrance gently by planning cabinets under the beams. As a result, we assume that you can feel a connection and division in the space. We were able to create a comfortable sense of distance.
The countertop around the room is made of OSB painted grey inspired by asphalt roads and the front side of the countertop is finished by carbon plates so that we could express an identity of the driving shoes brand. This counter and the black tile wall are the gallery of the products. You can see them while working and having meetings. Furthermore, you can take pictures in various situations because we selected various finish materials for floors, furniture and so on. In this case, they are functional materials in themselves.
This factory got to be a facility that you could see the scene of manufacturing in Japan casually by planning the showroom with the factory and be a lively facility by increasing customers. Thus we succeeded in putting a new flow of people in the factory area.