Saitama, Japan
Obayashi Corporation, one of Japan’s leading construction firms, designed this new building for the Riken Keiki to inspire imagination and to strengthencollaboration between departments, thereby increasing intellectual productivity.
This project was short-listed for a 2021 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Riken Reiki, the pioneer of gas detectors in Japan, established an innovation center on the site in 2014 to serve as its research and development base.
This project aims to create a base that integrates research and development and production by consolidating and extending production bases scattered throughout Japan on the site.
The two buildings are connected by a bridge in order to strengthen the cooperation between the departments and improve the efficiency of development and production.
Three-dimensional green network
The volumes of both buildings are partially set back to reduce the sense of oppression to the surroundings. On the setback rooftop, a green terrace is set up to create a three-dimensional green skyline. The green skyline creates a richness in the industrial landscape. The openings are oriented toward the green space. By creating a space with a sense of nature, it is possible to improve the intellectual productivity of the employees.
Box composition integrated with L-shaped motif
Multiple uses are coordinate by clear plan zoning and stacking to divide the building volume. The Innovation Center has the inspection and logistics department in the lower part and the technical development department in the upper part, while the visitor zone, cafeteria, and terrace are located on the third floor, which connects the two different uses.
The production center has production departments on the first to sixth floors and maintenance departments on the overhang of the second floor.
The main facades of the two buildings are unified by the same method of integrating different volumes with an L-shaped motif. The east side of the development center and the west side of the production center have mechanical balconies to accommodate future equipment renewal and expansion.
Taking advantage of the fact that the building is a complex of R&D, production, and logistics facilities, the architects intended to create a building with various elements that show different expressions depending on the angle of view.
The new building was designed to break away from the standardized appearance of conventional production facilities and to express RIKEN KEIKI’s presence in the industrial landscape.
Switching
Based on the hypothesis that intellectual productivity can be improved by increasing opportunities to switch minds throughout the day, the interior design was based on the keyword ‘switching’ of the researcher’s thinking.
Switching methods include ‘color-switching,’ and ‘color temperature switching’.
Color Switching: In the innovation center, each floor is given a different floor color. When moving from floor to floor during breaks or meetings with other departments, the colors change, which encourages workers to change their minds.
Color temperature switching
The production center has different lighting color temperatures for production areas and common areas. The production area, where intensive work is done, is daylight white, while the common areas are warm and light bulbous, which encourages the switching of on/off modes.
Project: Riken Keiki Innovation Center+Production Center
Architects: Obayashi Corporation
Client: Riken Keiki Co., Ltd.
Contractor: Obayashi Corporation
Photographers: Nacasa and Partners Inc. Keita Yamamoto SS Co., Ltd., and Naomichi Sode
