OMA's first office building in japan features two pixelated edges

OMA completes tenjin business center

OMA announces the completion of ‘tenjin business center’ in fukuoka, marking the firm’s first ground-up office building in japan. the complex spans a total area of 59,480 sqm and comprises a mixed-use office program that includes financial services, retail, and parking. 

the new urban intervention is articulated by glazed façades and two pixelated edges that intend to give the building a sense of softness like that of a melting ice cube.

images by tomoyuki kusunose

tenjin business center is the first development to be realized as part of the tenjin big bang initiative, which aims to transform the city into a new business hub for asia. the project also marks a new generation of collaboration between OMA, the city of fukuoka, and fukuoka jisho.

OMA partner and fukuoka native, shohei shigematsu, says about the project,‘it’s been a remarkable experience to build in my hometown where the city’s unique culture and identity are held close by its community, but in a moment of transformation catalyzed by an openness to new ideas and people. tenjin business center is an incubator and platform that draws from its neighborhood activities and urban life while harnessing the energy of new ventures.’

looking up lower corner

A CARVED-OUT CORNER TO LINK TWO MAJOR THOROUGHFARES

tenjin business center occupies a corner site at the intersection of two major axes: meiji-dori — the city’s established avenue of commerce lined with financial offices — and inabacho-dori — an organic pedestrian corridor linked to the city hall plaza and galleria, lined with intimate cafes. the site also connects to a below-ground subway station and shopping concourse.

to articulate the convergence of these two main streets, the architects decided to carve out the corner of the building, creating a pixelated effect that simultaneously reveals the internal activity of the office and draws in public activity at the new entry plaza.

corner plaza

‘the building program is predominantly workspace, within a given massing that is neither low-rise nor tower, so the design was conceived through hyper-focused interventions that subtly merge and connect human and urban scale, two streets of different character, inside and outside, city and nature,’  continues shigematsu.

the result is an efficient office block with the most memorable corner — an excavation of the building toward more openness. a big bang signifies a starting point, and I hope this gesture will be an invitation for future developments to participate in creating a network of activated intersections and public zones that knit the new district together.’

corner plaza at dusk

the building is described as ‘introverted’ as the carved-out corner leads people inside to a six-story atrium. this soaring space reinforces the inside/outside visual connection and brings natural light down to the lower-level concourse linked to the area’s underground pedestrian, retail, and transit network.

the pixelated façade also creates a series of stepped soffit surfaces above that are illuminated at night with signage and lighting, reinforcing a sense of place at the corner plaza.

corner plaza

the pixelated edge is mirrored at the opposite top corner of the building, which provides dynamic office interiors. in respect to the nature in the city, OMA symbolically introduces panoramic views to the often-overlooked naka river and hakata bay.

together, the two pixelated edges round out the building to create a sense of softness like that of a melting ice cube. the eroded corners soften the edge between public domain and private office, generating an openness for the activity along fukuoka’s main civic and commercial thoroughfares.

north façade street view at night

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project info:

name: tenjin business center

location: fukuoka, japan

client: fukuoka jisho co., ltd.

architecture: OMA

program: office/mixed use
total area: 59,480 sqm

project team:

partner-in-charge: shohei shigematsu
associate: luke willis
project architect: takeshi mitsuda
team: toru okada, mitchell lorberau, ted lin, sumit sahdev, daniel rauchwerger, alyssa murasaki saltzgaber, joanne chen, timothy tse

competition team:
associate: jake forster
team: alyssa murasaki saltzgaber, yusef ali dennis, caroline corbett, mitchell lorberau, miguel darcy, jackie woon bae, carly dean

executive architect (CD – CA): maeda corporation

executive architect (SD – DD): nihon sekkei

structure: nihon sekkei, maeda corporation

MEP/FP: nihon sekkei, maeda corporation
façade engineers: maeda corporation, arup japan

interior design: curiosity inc.
exterior lighting: lighting planners associates

general contractor: maeda corporation