tp bennett embraced the natural light and playful spirit at the Tetra Pak offices in Tokyo, Japan. The scheme offers a future-focused workplace for Tetra Pak’s 150+-strong team in Tokyo, providing a new way of working that responds to research and feedback from nearly 19,000 employees across the global business. As the brand’s dedicated workplace collaborator, tp bennett is working on a series of other workplaces for Tetra Pak in the UK and internationally, including in Dublin, Lund, Modena, and Singapore.

Located in downtown Tokyo in the Motoakasaka district, the 14,000 sqft office is the first in Asia to fully deploy Tetra Pak’s global “Future Work Experience” from concept to completion, with tp bennett delivering the workplace in response to four key areas: flexible working arrangements, purpose-based workplaces, digital tools, and health & wellbeing. The concept, developed in-house, aims to empower all employees to achieve their own optimal work-life experience and provides Tetra Pak with the tools to elevate its workplace offering for employees with a focus on food, people and planet.

The design approach prioritises both environmental sustainability and employee wellbeing, ensuring that the new workplace provides a healthy and sustainably responsible environment. Using cognitive zoning methods, tp bennett designed gentle transitions from high-stimulation areas and lower-stimulation spaces. The open-plan environment allows all individual workstations to be positioned at the perimeter of the floorplate, with built-up areas for meeting rooms, storage or concentrated work located at the core.

Planters at each group of workstations, as well as greenery used as space dividers, soften the space while introducing the wellbeing and air quality improvement of planting. A calming palette of white, blues and timber is used as a method of decompressing and relaxing employees and visitors arriving from the highly stimulating external environment. A curved central coffee bar creates a designated landmark in ‘the square’ at the entrance to the office; the focus on food at the centre of the office creates a place for customers and colleagues to come together.

Alongside an effort to maximise recycled content in the materials and products selected, tp bennett also worked with the client to consider the circularity of specification to ensure a second life. Using its in-house Responsible Sourcing Questionnaire, tp bennett assessed the sustainability and social value aspects of material and furniture choices, using this to drive the selection of products selected based on carbon impact and social responsibility. Adopting this circular approach focused on manufacturers’ take-back schemes; recyclable content; ensuring recyclable material coatings; and demountability and reuse of constructed elements.

To ensure that sustainable practices continue through the office’s life in-use, tp bennett held engagement sessions to educate employees on how the space is designed to support them in everyday work and to make the most of energy-saving and recycling methods installed.

The workplace benefits from floor-to-ceiling glazing around the perimeter with beautiful external views and an abundance of natural daylight being brought into the space. By focusing on ways in which to provide flexible working options for activity-based working, the new space reduces the physical office footprint by 30% compared to its previous office, while still providing a comfortable and inspiring space for employees and visitors.