Photos © Kozo Takayama
Client : Beacon Communications, Tokyo
Photography: Kozo Takayama
Beacon is a new advertising
agency. It is a merger of 3 agencies Leo Burnet,
D’Arcy and Denstu. The newly
formed Beacon wanted to move into offices which
reflected their new
approach to advertising and allowed for a new working
style. Communication between
the 300 staff within the agency was seen as the key.
The office should
generate cross over between the staff at every possible
opportunity. More talking, more chance meetings, more ‘what are you doing’,
more ‘what’s that you are working on’.
Many of the initial meeting
took place in Deluxe, our shared open studio.
Many meetings happen at the
same time within Deluxe with no real division.
Everybody knows what is
going on. The chance cross over between the 5
companies which share the
space is very strong. Beacon wanted something
similar, something as
flexible. An office which could regroup as new brands
emerged and old brands
disappeared. This meant turning away from the
enclosed offices and
cubicles that everyone was used to and moving to very
JR Tokyu Meguro building is
built over the Yamanote train line and the new
Mekama line station, which
gives the building a column free space 60m long x
15m wide. The long side of the plan faces
west with stunning views. The
core
wall faces east, with the south and north
windows looking up and down
the train tracks. This lead
to us putting leaving the west side of the
building for all the open
plan desks – so everyone could enjoy
the view and
feel the daylight. The
meeting and multipurpose areas were then positioned
in a long line adjacent the
core wall. This accentuated the length of the
building making the over
all space more dynamic and went with the energy of
the tracks below the
building.
Some area of the meeting
and multipurpose areas needed to be enclosed some
need to be open. To
accommodate this we developed a ribbon which connected
all the rooms acting as a
ceiling in some rooms, wall in another, a stage
area in another. Some times
the ribbon was glazed in sometimes it was left
open allowing the space to
spill out into the main office.
There are no enclosed
private offices – even for the directors.
Everyone has
their own private
workstation, but they are only a few steps from the ribbon
where there can find a
small office to have a private conversation in or a
quiet meeting. The 6
directors do not even there own desk they work around
12m long dining table with
the company president. The idea is to break down
the formality of the
management area – anyone within the company
can pull up
one of the 20 dining chairs
around the table and chat to the directors.
Beacon decided upon floor
themes to divide the agency. Woman, Man, Family
and Community. For example
on the woman floor a hair saloon and beauty
centre are a part of the
ribbon, spilling out from an open ‘stage’ section
of the ribbon. The family
floor revolves around a fully functional kitchen
with cooking and laundry
facilities. New washing products can be tested and
Materials and colours too
revolve around the themed floors. The ribbon on
the male floor is steel,
the ribbon on the family floor is wood and the
ribbon on the female floor
is pink snake skin!
The office has a dual
purpose acting as a showroom for future clients,
almost advertising for the
agency itself!
The office is seen almost
as a living room – after all you spend more of
your ‘awake’ time in the office than
you do at home. In fact Beacon see the
move as ‘okarinasai’ welcome home – they have gone back home – down town in
Meguro where they are closer to the consumers than
their previous bases in
the business districts of
Tokyo and the office too offers a warm welcoming
place to work.
Total Communication
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