Discover A Washi-Lined Workplace In Tokyo Anchored In Tradition

2025 Best of Year Winner for Firm’s Own Office

In crafting their own Tokyo workplace, the Symbolplus team followed the lead of the building envelope—a timber structure from the early 2000’s—echoing the boxy rhythm of the existing joinery in new wood elements. Eschewing synthetic finishes, successive layers of plaster made of local red clay was applied to select interior walls. Discarded Tosa washi, a traditional Japanese paper made in Kochi that had been deemed too thin for architectural use, was reinforced by overlapping reams of the stuff, then placed in shoji screens. The softly translucent dividers are moveable, sliding to conceal storage or carve private nooks out of the tidy 820-square-foot open plan. Ceiling panels of the same material also move manually, rotating to diffuse the glow from bright track lights. Prioritizing craftsmanship over mass production, the project embodies the firm’s philosophy: to design modest spaces that emerge from dialogue with history and everyday use.

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SATOSHI NOBEKAWA; SHO WATANABE.