Tenjin Business Center | OMA

About Tenjin Business Center

Fukuoka was OMA’s only completed project in Japan until 2012. The Nexus World Housing project was built more than 25 years ago. Fukuoka Jisho, a local developer, commissioned Arata Isozaki to create a concept that promotes a “new urban lifestyle,” for which OMA was chosen to build a freestanding dwelling block as one of six architects.

Fukuoka, Japan’s seventh largest city, is noted for its distinct cultural character. Its central location among major East Asian cities makes the town a gateway into Japan, adding to its status as Kyushu Island’s economic core. Over the previous decade, the city has thrived, ranking strongly in livability, a ratio of the younger population, and a percentage of startups.

Tenjin Business Center’s Design Concept

Tenjin Business Center represents a renewed commitment to urban development and growth like the Nexus World Housing complex. It also means the next phase of partnership between OMA, Fukuoka City, and Fukuoka Jisho. We think this initiative was made possible by the chance convergence of three persons of the same generation: Fukuoka native Shohei Shigematsu; Ichiro Enomoto, the current CEO of Fukuoka Jisho (son of Kazuhiko Enomoto, the former CEO who commissioned Nexus World Housing); and mayor Soichiro Takashima.

Tenjin Commercial Center will be the first project under the mayor’s Tenjin Big Bang program, which aims to help the area establish itself as an Asian commercial hub and startup city. We wanted to develop a structure that is more than simply a symbol of accomplishment; we wanted it to be an incubator and discussion place that harnesses the energy and activities of the neighborhood. How can we design an office building that represents Fukuoka’s current urban surroundings while also implying a new generation?

The property is at the crossroads of two critical axes: Meiji-dori, the city’s established commercial thoroughfare packed with financial buildings, and Inabacho-dori, an organic pedestrian corridor connecting to the City Hall Plaza and Galleria and dotted with modest cafés. The location is connected to a below-ground metro station and a shopping area. The building program is primarily for workstations, and the massing is neither low-rise nor tower.

Office buildings are frequently relatively somber and removed from public life. The introverted typology hides its finest advantages by internalizing its atriums and lobbies. Our strategy was to dig the facade at the intersection of Meiji-Dori and Inabacho-dori to communicate the junction of two distinct urban activities. This gesture improves two circumstances at the same time: it reveals internal office activities while also drawing public attention to the new entry plaza.

A six-story atrium within the scooped-out corner maintains the inside/outside visual connection and feeds natural light down to the lower-level concourse connected to the area’s underground pedestrian, retail, and transportation network. The excavation is calibrated as three-dimensional pixels that scale the structure to human scale. The pixelated facade creates a succession of soffit surfaces above the convergence point, activated with signage and lights to establish a feeling of location.

Setbacks on the opposite higher level provide green terraces for offices. We present terraces with panoramic views of the often-overlooked Naka River and Hakata Bay as a statement of appreciation for the environment in the city. The two pixelated edges fill the structure, creating a softness reminiscent of a melting ice cube.

The eroding corners smooth the transition between the public realm and the private office building, creating a sense of openness for activities along Fukuoka’s principal civic and commercial thoroughfares. As the first building in the Tenjin Big Bang plan, we wanted it to set a pattern for the other buildings—activated crossroads and plazas at each structure, creating a network of public zones that connects the new area.

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