Buttondesign Waseda office is located in Waseda, Shinjuku-ku, a district lined with printing factories and a mix of old buildings and residences.

This renovation is for the companys own office, an architectural design office.

It is a small one-room office with only a small number of work desks and a meeting table.

The office also functions as a showroom where clients can experience the space and materials expressed by Buttondesign, so we designed a comfortable office with a mixture of various materials, including wood, earth, steel, concrete, and fabric.

The 35-year-old office building had large interior windows, but the building was located on the north side of the building, which clashed with the neighboring house and made it difficult to let in natural light. We installed upholstered fixtures on the windows to let in soft light while blocking the line of sight from outside, and finished the walls and ceiling with diatomaceous earth to create a seamless space that expands with light.

A tin panel was installed on the wall next to the work desk, which is far from the window. The dull light reflected off the oxidized tin contributes to the brightness of the room. The hard tin, which is different in appearance from the soft diatomaceous earth, visually separates the meeting space from the work desk space, gently dividing the one-room room into different areas.

For the concrete earthen floor, demolition of the existing P-tiles revealed a textured floor with time etched into it. The plan was to pour a new concrete floor, but we decided to use the floor as it appeared during the construction. This kind of coincidence is one of the joys of renovation.

The meeting table, work desk, and partitions are made of oak.

While incorporating the necessary functions in a limited one-room office, we created a comfortable space like a house by designing and applying our own hands to everything from furniture to lighting fixtures and fittings.