OMA's First Ground-Up Office Building in Japan, Tenjin Business Center, Completed

Tenjin Business Center, a 640,300-square-foot mixed-use office complex, has been completed in Fukuoka, Japan. The project marks OMA's first ground-up office building in Japan and the first built development of the Tenjin Big Bang initiative, which aims to transform the district into an Asian business hub and startup city. Designed by OMA's New York office as lead architect in collaboration with Maeda Corporation, Nihon Sekkei, and Curiosity Inc., the building represents a new ambition for urban renewal and growth in Fukuoka.

The site is located 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. OMA's approach was to excavate the facade on the corner of Meiji-Dori and Inabacho-dori to articulate the convergence of two different urban activities. This gesture enhances two conditions simultaneously - it reveals the internal activity of the office and draws in public activity at the new entry plaza.

The building program is predominantly workspace, within a given massing that is neither low-rise nor tower. Therefore, the design was conceived through hyper-focused interventions that subtly merge and connect human and urban scale, two streets of different characters, inside and outside, city and nature. The result is an efficient office block with the most memorable corner - an excavation of the building towards more openness. Within the carved-out corner is a six-story atrium that reinforces the inside/outside visual connection and draws natural light down to the lower-level concourse linked to the area's underground pedestrian, retail, and transit network.

The excavation is calibrated as three-dimensional pixels that break down the building to a human scale. The pixelated facade forms a series of soffit surfaces above, activated with signage and lighting that reinforce a sense of place at the convergence point. Setbacks at the opposing upper level provide dynamic office interiors. With respect to 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.

Shohei Shigematsu, OMA Partner and Fukuoka native said: "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.