Silver A' Design Award Winner 2025
Mitsuhiro Shoji's Work at Nagasaki Office exemplifies the sophisticated convergence of corporate function and contemplative spatial poetry that characterizes the most accomplished contemporary workplace design. The interior demonstrates remarkable sensitivity to the phenomenological experience of inhabiting space, employing a carefully calibrated material vocabulary that moves between the organic warmth of varied wood species and the refined darkness of architectural steel and mirrored surfaces. The designer appears to engage deeply with the tradition of Japanese spatial philosophy, where the interplay of light and shadow, solid and void, creates environments that support both productive activity and meditative pause. The composition achieves particular success in its vertical articulation, where the monumental oak-clad column establishes a grounding presence that anchors the eye before releasing attention toward the perspectival depth of the conference zone. Technical accomplishment manifests in the sophisticated lighting design, which layers ambient illumination with targeted accent lighting to create hierarchical zones of brightness and shadow that guide occupant movement and focus. The material selections demonstrate connoisseurship in their combination of figured walnut paneling, whose dramatic grain patterns suggest natural geological forces, with the restrained elegance of neutral upholstery and the sculptural presence of the organic-edged stone table. This work invites consideration of how the workplace environment might nurture human wellbeing through sensory richness and spatial generosity, suggesting that professional spaces need not sacrifice warmth and character for functional efficiency. What qualities of this environment might support both concentrated work and collaborative exchange?
Located in the heart of Nagasaki's old city center and its rich natural surroundings, Work at Nagasaki is a workplace that blends the grandeur of the natural landscape with a contemporary work style. This next generation co-working space, which is based on the theme of incorporating the changing landscape over time, is a creative space that emerges with a sense of floating in the elegant nature of Nagasaki's landscape and urban materials, blending them together beautifully.