Unicorn Stores (HK) Ltd. was founded in 1985 to function a chain of office retailers and supermarkets from Japan in Hong Kong, with a mission to provide “high-excellent, honest and courteous service of a division store from Japan to customers”. Bean Buro was tasked with planning their headquarters which has unique needs to keep and critique samples.
The Narrative: A modernised courteous place of work
We translated Unicorn Stores’ firm ethos as a very normal and courteous office for the personnel. We aided them shift from a classic workplace set up to a modern day place of work that is much extra sociable for collaborations while being relaxed and relaxing. The design utilises several subtle Japanese elements as inspiration.
The Method: Infusing Japanese roots into the interior
We investigated standard Japanese architecture and translated the strategies into easy timber joinery to develop many bespoke elements, these types of as the reception desk, a gridded ceiling lights system, and Japanese partition screens. Other Japanese inspirations consist of the use of a ‘noren’ – traditional dividers manufactured of normal fabric, usually hung in doorways and concerning rooms, and playful Japanese motifs in the graphic design and signages.
The Alternative: An open up and integrated neighbourhood
The entrance and reception lobby has been lined in timber to generate a heat and welcoming atmosphere with seating booths which can be utilized by guests and personnel alike in a cosy setting. The general place of work is an open strategy, one large connecting neighbourhood with many shared home furnishings integrated. Enclosed assembly rooms are situated in the main of the workplace with glass partitions to preserve visible connections and plants are incorporated into all the windowsills.
Alternatively than enclosed workplaces for the departmental heads, they are as a substitute connected to the staff as aspect of the open up program when continue to retaining a degree of privateness by way of the use of a series of bespoke acoustic partition screens with a customized textile style and design. The pantry is an casual house for the workers to loosen up with flexible café seating. The location also has pegged partitions for sharing local community details. Roller blinds are utilised along the pantry windows and assist to bolster the id of the place of work as a result of custom made graphic design.
The Resources: Neutral naturals with playful accents
The palette is predominantly timber and white for the architectural surfaces. A number of accents are made in the resources, which include the use of a gradient fluted glass for the partitions of the collaboration booths, playful geometry such as arcs and circles in red—an interpretation of the brand—and other refined makes use of of colours and graphics on the glass and acoustic partitions. Crimson coloured grout is also utilised for the tiles in the pantry place to additional inject the brand’s id into the layout.
We situated the standard perform neighbourhood to be around the home windows for ample normal daylight, and the meeting rooms in the core with an airy lights layout, to be certain excess synthetic lighting is not needed. For instance, the many wall acoustic panels with backlighting enable to increase the legibility of the rear walls of the area. Carpets have been utilised in all enclosed assembly rooms and crops have been built-in into the joinery structure. We also specified very low VOC paint and veneer laminates.
The Challenge: A fragile balancing act
The problem in terms of style and design was putting a sensitive equilibrium of producing a pretty powerful company identity by way of the use of colors, gentry, signages and even now guaranteeing the place of work is a cozy and soothing work setting. For illustration, we used vibrant colours in the entrance of dwelling reception and the pantry parts to promote vitality for heightened social interactions but stored all the standard workspaces very neutral making use of all-natural supplies. The end result is a workplace that embraces social, collaborative, and flexible operating.
Bean Buro team: Lorène Faure, Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui, Christina Standaloft, Isabelle Gin, Savannah Wilkins Customer: Unicorn Shops Major contractor: Component Technologies & Supplies Ltd.
