Emmanuelle Moureaux Architecture & Design have completed a bank branch in Tokiwadai, Tokyo, with recessed brightly coloured windows.
The facade also features a tree motif depicted in the perforations of the cladding.
The motif continues through the interior with colourful graphics of trees and leaves.
Living plants and trees have been introduced to the interior in seven vitrines illuminated with natural light.
Photos are by Nacasa & Partners Inc.
Here’s more info from the architects:
Sugama Shinkin Bank is a credit union that strives to provide first-rate hospitality to its customers in accordance with its motto: “we take pleasure in serving happy customers.” We handled the architectural and interior design for the bank’s newly relocated branch in Tokiwadai.
By basing our design around leaf motifs, we sought to create a refreshing space that would welcome customers with a natural, rejuvenative feeling.
The facade of the building features silhouettes of trees and an assortment of both large and small windows in 14 different colors arranged in a distinctive, rhythmical pattern that transforms the facade itself into signage.
ATMs and teller windows are located on the first floor, along with 3 courtyards and an open space laid out with chairs in 14 different colors.
The second storey houses the loan section, reception rooms, offices and 4 courtyards, while the third floor is reserved for facilities for staff use, including changing rooms and a cafeteria.
Thanks to the 7 light-filled courtyards planted with trees and flowering plants, each of these spaces is loosely connected to all the others.
A constellation of leaves in 24 different colors growing on the white branches of the walls and glass windows overlaps with the natural foliage of the real trees in the courtyards, creating the sensation of being in a magical forest.
THE SUGAMO SHINKIN BANK / TOKIWADAI BRANCH
Main use : Financial Institution
Location : Tokiwadai, Tokyo
Structure : Steel, 3 storeys
Site area : 656.94m2
Total floor area : 733.99m2
Open : June 2010
Photo credit : Nacasa & Partners Inc
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See also:
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| Stick Chair by Emmanuelle Moureaux |
Educational Centre by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda |
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Nice bright colours, I like!
Too bad the tree motive isn't visible. The perforations are too small.
León Auditorium by Monsilla + Tunon in 2002, anybody?
Notre Dame du Haut Ronchamp by Le Corbusier 1955, anyone?
White box with coloured windows is really boring now… but as a bank it makes sense. Looks solid and serious without being oppressive.
Those boxes of greenery inside are beautiful, hopefully they'll stay that way.
white is the new black
Very, very, very nice!
ps.reminds me of students' houses here in Amsterdam.
it looks like a children's playhouse… and it will be boring after a while.
Wow! A bank? I would definitely hate bankers less if they all would work in such buildings.
I'm loving the internal courtyards…. so open and playful.
Although I don't get the arbitrary windows on the front facade… are they suppose to represent the coloured leaves of the tree?
Such a happy little building- I like! Would make me smile if I walked past that everyday
I love the colours too!
Inner gardens provide a very positive atmosphere. Not boring at all. Looks more like an advertisement agency than a bank, which is not a bad thing at all.
I told you so, money grows on trees!
i would like this project more if it was built to be used as a hospital.
the interiors are well lit and fun… but this project is not terribly sophisticated design wise. architecture design should aspire to be more than a theme.
Too bad the interior is such a let down.
A really sweet building but doesn't give the look required for a bank . The interior garden completely elevates the mood
A bank with a motto “we take pleasure in serving happy customers”? A design to create a customer banking experience? Am I dreaming? Is this a way to mask the realities of an economic downturn? Banking in Wonderland. One may be taken with the happy-happy aesthetics on display and enter with a smile on one's face, but only to suffer withdrawal symptons on leaving….. (Oh for heaven's sake, it wasn't that bad).
Look a like Corbusier's work combine with Steven Holl material.
Is this really a bank? Looks like a kindergarten or a school…