Floating Sukiya: Kobe Konishi　　　　　　　　Headquarters and Circulation Depot

The new building of Kobe Konishi serves as an information center and circulation depot for liquor dealers. Inspired by Itsukushima Shrine built up above the sea water, the architect planned a floating sukiya (Japanese traditional architectural style) as an embodiment of Japanese ideal of simplicity.

As for lighting, two points were thoroughly considered; floating lightness of building and rhythmical beauty of structure. In contrast with the ground floor of the office left in dark, the upper floor ceiling is flooded with luminance, and thus form a series of light waves upheld over columns.

The ground floor, composed with an entrance lobby and a truck parking, only shows its columns with the blur light cast up by the ground fixtures. The upper floor, a working office, is illuminated with half-indirect fluorescent lamps suspended among the ceiling beams. The mild curve of the structure and the warm touch of the wooden beams come into life in the lighting. The depot, built next to the office building, features beautiful rhythm of the steel frames and wooden beams tuned in indirect lighting with metal halide floodlights.