Fukushima City Creative Business Salon

The Fukushima City Creative Business Salon Development Project was a public proposal competition held in July 2021, and our Tokyo Head Office was awarded the contract, with the Tohoku Branch taking over the design work.
This project involves renovating the permanent displays room of the Fukushima City Industrial Exchange Plaza on the second floor of Corasse Fukushima, a multi-purpose complex located near JR Fukushima Station's west exit. The goal is to create a new business exchange hub by developing a co-working space and shared office space, making it a comfortable facility for business people, freelancers, and university students. The space will cover approximately 755 square meters of floor area.

Fukushima is particularly known for its vibrant photography scene, and we have displays a gallery on the wall of our coworking space showcasing the rich natural beauty and seasonal landscapes of the area, as well as cultural and artistic works that reflect the rich sensibilities of the people of Fukushima, all captured by citizen photographers. Our concept design concept for this salon is "Shikisai Gallery" (Four Seasons Gallery), combining Fukushima's seasonal traditions with the rich sense of color of its people. We have created this gallery, built together with the citizens of Fukushima, to provide a more relaxing space for viewing art.


[Social Issues / Customer Issues / Requests]
While a spacious layout was required in light of the post-COVID era, there was also a need to consider zoning and seating capacity that would be profitable.
We were asked to create a facility that could be comfortably used by a variety of users, including business professionals, freelancers, and university students, by selecting flooring, walls, and ceilings that matched the style of each space—shared office, business networking space, coworking space, and meeting room—and by choosing a layout and furniture that suited their individual needs.


[Solution]
As a creative space for generating new businesses, we leveraged the large area of the facility and developed it into two distinct zones.
The business networking space is designed to resemble an active, bright, and natural, comfortable cafe. The walls and floors of the corporate PR displays are predominantly white, while the space incorporates the warmth of wood. The furniture is easily movable to accommodate various uses such as seminars and networking events.
The coworking space is designed as a calm lounge zone, primarily using gray tones, but with contrasting dark brown and dark wood accents on niche walls. The furniture is arranged to suit various individual needs, including comfortable sofas, large tables, and counter seats for focused individual work.
Furthermore, to foster connections with the local community and build a stronger sense of community, we enhanced the functionality of the corporate PR displays space and added displays "Shikisai Gallery," which is being created together with the citizens of Fukushima, aiming to create new connections between the people who use the facility and the town.


<Our project members>
[Development] Akihiko Nishimura
[Sales & Project Management] Keisuke Yoshida
[design, layout] Takayuki Kobayashi, Kenichi Suzuki, Makio Miura
[Design management] Kazunobu Nakamura
[Production and construction] Johei Saito