“TRi TERASU” is a lighting equipment manufacturer that has been pursuing new style of light by developing light devices using LED and light guiding technologies. This project was a renovation project of their new head office relocated to a building in front of Akihabara station, Tokyo.

The design concept is “Phenomenon” of light. The building itself provides several experiences of light as a place for expressing TRi TERASU brand. One of their major items is a light guide plate. Usually it is used for a light source of signboards so it takes a background role. But here, we adopted it as a finishing material for a surface layer that takes major factor of space compositions. We expressed streaming and floating light belts, mixed and dissolved colors, sequences of the real and fake, etc….

At the entrance lobby, the ceiling chandelier automatically lights up gradually as drawing ripples of light from the edge to the centre, when the sensor is tripped by the visitors movement.
The ripples of light flow into the wall where the “light guide panel” are installed as forming into an arch. “The ripples of light” link together with “the band of light” on the wall, and this light-band streams very slowly surrounding a circular bench at the centre of the lobby. All lighting system is programmed and controlled by a computer. And moreover, we designed various patterns of lighting in colour hue and rhythm.

We sprinkled spaces where you can experience phenomenon created from several lighting effects made by TRi TERASU’s advantages, LED and light guide plates. The entire building functions as a laboratory where phenomenon of light in space is investigated. We successfully designed not a certain figure but phenomenon of light which is born from incorporeality. The building makes a borderline of a town and itself vague and takes in energy of Akihabara. The space transmits a new light culture of TRi TERASU.

Designed by LADAKH DESIGN ASSOCIATES
Photography by Nacasa & Partners