Silver Interior Space and Exhibition Design · 2025
Embraced in Recycled Steel Office
- A' Design Award 2025 Silver Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Kyoei Steel Ltd.
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 19,813
- Verification code FAA75E4E1A · Verify this award
About Embraced in Recycled Steel Office
Embraced in Recycled Steel is an office interior built with recycled steel supplied by Kyoei Steel. Angle steel, rebars, and flat bars are left exposed to emphasize material strength and texture. Structural elements that are usually concealed become aesthetic focal points. Barcode and QR code motifs extend across wall finishes and stair railings, linking the space to the company identity. Steel ceiling louvers hold seamless linear LED lighting that highlights the motifs. The interior shows the potential of repurposed materials in a contemporary workplace.
Nobuaki Miyashita's Embraced in Recycled Steel Office represents a significant contribution to contemporary discourse surrounding sustainable interior design and the poetic transformation of industrial materials into experiential spatial environments. This installation demonstrates how recycled steel elements, traditionally associated with purely functional applications, may be reimagined as vehicles for architectural expression when deployed with sensitivity to light, proportion, and atmospheric effect. The designer appears to engage with traditions of material honesty championed by modernist pioneers while simultaneously embracing contemporary concerns regarding environmental responsibility and circular economy principles in design practice. The vertical orientation of the steel components creates a powerful spatial experience that evokes associations with sacred architecture, the soaring heights suggesting aspiration and transcendence while remaining grounded in the tangible reality of industrial material culture. Technical accomplishment is evident in the precise coordination of hundreds of individual steel elements, each positioned to contribute to the overall rhythmic composition while allowing light to penetrate and animate the interior with shifting shadows and luminous passages throughout the day. The integration of linear LED fixtures serves both functional illumination requirements and compositional purposes, their warm glow providing necessary light levels while simultaneously creating dramatic visual pathways that guide the eye upward through the metallic forest. Chromatic restraint to achromatic values allows the inherent qualities of the recycled steel to speak without distraction, celebrating variations in surface oxidation, texture, and reflectivity that result from the material's previous life cycles. This work invites contemplation regarding the relationship between industrial production, material waste, and the potential for creative redemption through thoughtful design intervention. What possibilities for beauty and meaning might be discovered when we approach discarded materials not as problems to be solved but as resources carrying histories worth honoring?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- This office interior transforms Kyoei Steel’s recycled steel—angle steel, rebars, and flat bars—into a refined architectural expression. Typically hidden elements become aesthetic highlights, emphasizing material strength and texture. Barcode and QR code motifs extend across the space, visually linking to Kyoei Steel’s corporate identity. Lighting enhances these patterns, creating a dynamic interplay between recycled steel, technology, and light.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Site Area: 108,045.44 Square meters
Building Area: 1,091.12 Square meters
Total Floor Area: 3,931.89 Square meters
Structure: RC
Number of Floors: 4 above ground
Maximum Height: 19.9 m
Eaves Height: 16.5 m
Floor Height: 3.9 m
Ceiling Height: 2.9 m - Tags
- architecture, office, lighting design, recycled steel, sustainable design
- Production Technology
- The office interior features angle steel, rebars, and flat bars as exposed materials, emphasizing their structural and aesthetic qualities. Barcode motifs, derived from Kyoei Steel’s website, are embedded in wall finishes and stair railings, linking physical space to digital branding. The ceiling’s steel louvers incorporate billet-shaped seamless LED lighting, reinforcing a cohesive design language that blends recycled materials with innovative illumination.
- Design Challenge
- The primary challenge was redefining recycled steel’s role in architecture beyond its conventional industrial use. Integrating angle steel, rebars, and flat bars as visible elements required precise detailing and innovative finishing techniques. Additionally, balancing material authenticity with a refined aesthetic posed a design challenge. Regulatory constraints, production limitations, and ensuring harmony between raw steel textures and digital motifs, such as barcode patterns, demanded extensive prototyping and iterative design development.
- Project Duration
- The project commenced in early 2022 in Yamaguchi, Japan, with design and planning phases focused on integrating Kyoei Steel’s identity into the architecture. Construction began in mid-2023, aiming to unify office functions while enhancing operational efficiency and employee engagement. The office was completed in early 2024, creating a sustainable workspace that embodies the company’s commitment to steel recycling and innovation.
- Operation Flow
- The office interior integrates barcode and QR code motifs, linking the space to Kyoei Steel’s corporate identity. These patterns, expressed in wall treatments and stairwell designs, create an interactive experience, guiding movement through the space. The ceiling’s steel louvers diffuse light while reinforcing the visual continuity of barcode-inspired elements. This design transforms an industrial material narrative into a contemporary, high-tech environment.
- Research
- Type of Research: Applied Design Research
Objective: To explore the aesthetic and functional integration of recycled steel in office interiors.
Methodology: Material experimentation, spatial simulations, and lighting analysis.
Data Collection: Prototype testing and digital modeling.
Participants: Architects, engineers, and Kyoei Steel stakeholders.
Results & Insights: The research highlighted the potential of exposed steel as a design element, demonstrating its structural beauty and reinforcing corporate identity. The study advanced sustainable interior design, influencing material reuse practices in industrial architecture. - Inspiration
- The design embodies the lifecycle of steel recycling while visually integrating Kyoei Steel’s digital identity. Barcode and QR code patterns, inspired by the company’s website, appear throughout the space, symbolizing the transformation of raw materials into structured design. By exposing and celebrating recycled steel, the project creates a unique spatial narrative, merging industrial heritage with a contemporary digital aesthetic.
- Image Credits
- Image #1,#2 : Photographer Nobuaki Miyashita Variations, 2024
Image #3,#4,#5 : Photographer Sato Kenta, Variations, 2024. - Patents
- N/A
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The barcode and QR code motifs symbolize Kyoei Steel’s evolution from traditional manufacturing to a digitally integrated enterprise. By translating industrial identity into a visual system, we expressed the company’s philosophy of “recycling with intelligence.” The black-and-white stripes are not decorative—they represent material data, process rhythm, and the circulation of resources, forming a new architectural language of industrial transparency.
The decision to expose rebar, steel plates, and structural components arose from a desire to reveal the beauty of manufacturing itself. Rather than concealing the structure, we transformed it into a spatial narrative about the cycle of creation. Each element retains its raw industrial character, yet collectively they create an atmosphere of precision and dignity—embodying the poetry of steel.
We conducted extensive experiments on how light interacts with recycled steel surfaces—testing gloss levels, oxide layers, and reflection angles. The interplay between matte and mirror finishes generated a dynamic rhythm under linear LED illumination. The final lighting composition allows steel to appear alternately solid and fluid, evoking both material strength and atmospheric delicacy.
The design process was guided by duality—roughness and refinement, industry and intellect. We balanced exposed structural elements with minimalist geometry and controlled lighting. The juxtaposition created a disciplined aesthetic: raw materials expressed honestly, yet organized with architectural precision. It’s a space where the industrial becomes sublime.
Consistency was achieved through a modular system based on the proportions of steel billets. Each spatial element—walls, ceilings, lighting—follows this invisible order. The repetition of linear forms unifies the diverse functions while subtle variations in scale and lighting intensity keep the experience dynamic and immersive throughout the vast area.
This project redefines sustainability not merely as resource reduction, but as “corporate circular identity.” By using recycled steel from Kyoei’s own production and designing for disassembly, we created an office that embodies the full lifecycle of materials. It positions architecture as a message: sustainability is achieved through continuity between industry, material, and design.
The billet-shaped seamless LEDs required precise fabrication to achieve both linear continuity and uniform brightness. We developed custom aluminum housings that integrate structural and lighting functions, reducing visible joints. This technical refinement reinforced the concept—light as material, structure as rhythm—merging engineering with poetic spatiality.
This project demonstrates that industrial materials can transcend utility and become cultural statements. I believe future corporate spaces will increasingly embrace this synthesis—where manufacturing identity informs spatial character. The Embraced in Recycled Steel Office repositions industry as design inspiration, not limitation.
Circulation spaces incorporate barcode-inspired lighting to subtly guide movement. The alternating rhythm of black steel and white light creates a cognitive flow—employees naturally navigate through contrast and repetition. This dynamic environment stimulates awareness and connects the act of movement to the company’s continuous production cycle.
Receiving the Silver A’ Design Award validated our exploration of industrial expression as architectural art. It encourages us to continue pushing boundaries between engineering and aesthetics. For me, the recognition signifies a growing global appreciation for sustainability not only as performance, but as cultural and emotional resonance.