Silver Interior Space and Exhibition Design · 2025
Waterscape Colab with Jpre Office
- A' Design Award 2025 Silver Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Moriyuki Ochiai Architects
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 21,633
- Verification code EEC53C2C99 · Verify this award
About Waterscape Colab with Jpre Office
Waterscape Colab with Jpre is a shared office interior in Tokyo, Japan, covering 800 square meters. A single recycled aluminum sheet is spread across the entire ceiling and forms waves that reflect natural light. At the entrance the waves are intense and the ceiling height changes sharply. In the sofa lounge and desk areas the waves are calmer and the ceiling is higher, supporting concentration and rest. In the bar and kitchen areas the waves stay low, creating a close setting. The ceiling parts can be taken apart and installed again in another location.
Moriyuki Ochiai Architects's Waterscape Colab with Jpre Office exemplifies a remarkable synthesis of sculptural ambition and functional workplace design that situates itself within contemporary movements exploring the intersection of art installation and architectural practice. The ceiling intervention appears to draw upon traditions of environmental art while maintaining dialogue with the material investigations characteristic of Japanese architectural innovation, where the phenomenological qualities of surfaces and the experiential dimension of space receive particular attention. The technical achievement here seems considerable, with each aluminum element apparently individually formed to create the impression of captured movement, suggesting water flowing overhead or perhaps clouds caught in perpetual transformation. The compositional strategy demonstrates sophisticated understanding of perspectival drama, employing the long corridor format to create visual anticipation and journey, while the solitary figure at the threshold provides both scale reference and narrative invitation. The chromatic restraint of the surrounding architecture serves the installation effectively, allowing the reflective surfaces to command attention without competition while the warm timber elements offer necessary visual respite. One might observe how the work explores tensions between industrial material and organic form, between overhead presence and grounded calm, between the spectacular and the serene. The lighting design appears integral to the installation's success, transforming the aluminum surfaces into active participants in the space's illumination rather than merely decorative additions. Viewers may find themselves contemplating how this environment reshapes the experience of work itself, suggesting that professional spaces might aspire to the contemplative qualities more typically associated with galleries or sacred architecture. What possibilities emerge when the boundaries between functional architecture and immersive art installation become productively blurred?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Here, a single aluminum sheet is spread across the entire ceiling and fills the space with waves full of fresh vitality, reflecting light and producing soft glimmers like that of the sunlight shining on the surface of the paddy fields of yesteryear. The beautifully overlapping metallic waves create areas of different heights and expanses of space that change freely, just as water flows in a lively and reactive manner, thus suffusing the area with the necessary functions and atmosphere.
In the entrance area, the intense flow of the waves creates a dynamic space where the height of the space changes vertically in dramatic fashion, giving visitors a strong sense of movement, promoting stimulating encounters and ideas.
In the sofa lounge and desk areas, the waves become calmer and the height of the space increases, providing an environment geared for relaxation and concentration along with a sense of openness.
In the bar and kitchen areas, the waves are kept low and calm, creating an intimate space for people to liven up and enjoy deeper conversations.
Sunny and cloudy skies, sunrise and dusk, and other seasonal and daily changes in natural light are experienced with subtlety, allowing for a variety of atmospheric spatial experiences depending on the location of visitors and the passage of time.
The beautifully transient overarching waterscape creates a poetic rhythm in response to the changes in environmental light, producing a mysterious radiance imbued with profound depth that enhances the enjoyment and pleasure of artisans engaged in creative activities. - Dimensions & Packaging
- 800sqm
- Tags
- office, officedesign,officespace, design, award,spacedesign, interiorarchitecture, japandesign, interior, moriyuki ochiai,
- Production Technology
- Please refer to project description.
- Design Challenge
- - Sustainable Aspects -
We used “recycled“ aluminum sheets for this space project.
Moreover, since they give the space its singularity, we adapted the assembly method of the aluminum ceiling parts so as to be able to disassemble and reinstall them when moving the business to a different location. In doing so, we devised a way to effectively reduce the costs of moving. - Project Duration
- located in Tokyo , Japan
- Operation Flow
- Please refer to inspiration
- Research
- Please refer to inspiration and description.
- Inspiration
- -The light of transient waves reflecting fleeting changes in nature and time-
We designed shared office spaces intended to bring together a diversity of Japanese manufacturing companies and spark the co-creation of new cultural and business values through organic exchanges.
Deliverables included spaces that stimulate creativity and foster interaction among the diverse artisans working in the shared office who promote the use of traditional Japanese manufacturing techniques. Moreover we sought to reflect the history of the district of Gotanda, an area whose name echoes it's rural rice farming origins. Thus grew the idea to create an office space that harmoniously incorporates these elements.
A kimono is born from a single piece of cloth,
Origami is the art of transforming a single sheet of paper into various forms.
Furoshiki is a single piece of cloth used to wrap objects of all shapes and sizes.
Limited resources have spurred a variety of Japanese innovations that have made their way in the creation of everyday goods.
In celebration of this cultural heritage, we endeavored to create a space that satisfies various functions and requirements through the ingenious volumization of a simple flat surface, made of aluminum, a limited material. - Image Credits
- Photo: Daisuke Shima
- Patents
- Moriyuki Ochiai Architects