Embraced in Recycled Steel Office by Nobuaki Miyashita is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 Silver A' Design Award in Architectural Lighting Competition Category.
SilverArchitectural Lighting· 2025
Embraced in Recycled Steel Office
Client: Kyoei Steel Ltd
Silver A' Design Award Winner in Architectural Lighting Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #171529The Design
About Embraced in Recycled Steel Office
Embraced in Recycled Steel is an architectural lighting design for an office building in Yamaguchi, Japan. Billet-shaped seamless LED fixtures are embedded within steel louvers, creating a rhythm of light across the recycled steel surfaces. Lighting patterns inspired by barcodes and QR codes are placed through the interior and shift in appearance as people move. A control system adjusts brightness in response to daylight conditions. The design highlights the texture of recycled steel while providing comfortable illumination for daily work.
The Recognition
About the Silver A' Design Award
Embraced in Recycled Steel Office is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. Embraced in Recycled Steel Office is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Embraced in Recycled Steel Office is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.
Where to Get It
Award-Winning Architectural Lighting Design
We transform spaces through innovative lighting design that enhances architecture and user experience. From offices to hotels, factories to cultural facilities, our expertise spans diverse building types. With decades of experience and numerous international awards, we create site-specific lighting solutions that reveal each project's unique identity while maximizing functionality and aesthetic impact.
Discuss Your ProjectInterviews
Grand Interview
Your innovative integration of billet-shaped LED fixtures within the Embraced in Recycled Steel Office creates a striking visual narrative - could you elaborate on how this design choice reflects Kyoei Steel's commitment to sustainable manufacturing?
The billet-shaped LED fixtures express the transformation of recycled steel into new architectural value. Each linear luminaire symbolizes the rebirth of steel billets, representing Kyoei Steel’s philosophy of circulation and sustainability. By using energy-efficient LEDs and recycled steel components, we turned industrial materials into a poetic expression of light—bridging production and design in a sustainable narrative.
The barcode and QR code-inspired lighting patterns in Embraced in Recycled Steel Office represent an intriguing fusion of digital connectivity and industrial heritage - what inspired this symbolic approach to illumination design?
The barcode and QR code motifs visualize Kyoei Steel’s evolution from analog industry to digital innovation. These patterns metaphorically encode the company’s identity, linking material authenticity with information technology. The rhythmic black-and-white lighting composition embodies data flow and production rhythm, transforming industrial heritage into a language of digital modernity.
How did the challenge of maintaining material authenticity while incorporating advanced lighting systems in Embraced in Recycled Steel Office influence your design decisions and technical solutions?
Maintaining the raw expression of steel while integrating sophisticated lighting required precision. We avoided decorative finishes, instead embedding linear luminaires into structural elements. Each fixture was designed to reveal the steel’s texture, oxidation tone, and depth, ensuring that technology amplifies, not hides, material honesty. This balance was achieved through meticulous mockups and reflectivity studies.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- This lighting design transforms Kyoei Steel’s industrial identity into a refined architectural experience, emphasizing the interplay of recycled steel and light. Billet-shaped seamless LED fixtures embedded in steel louvers create a luminous rhythm, enhancing the material’s structural and textural qualities. Barcode and QR code-inspired lighting compositions connect digital branding with the environment, reinforcing the company's commitment to sustainability and innovation.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Site Area: 108,045.44
Square meters Building Area: 1,091.12 Square meters
Total Floor Area: 3,931.89 Square meters
Structure: RC
Number of Floors: 4 above ground
Maximum Height: 19.9 m Eaves Height: 16.5 m
Floor Height: 3.9 m
Ceiling Height: 2.9 m - Tags
- architecture, office, lighting design, recycled steel, sustainable design
- Production Technology
- The lighting system incorporates billet-shaped seamless LED fixtures precisely embedded within steel louvers. These lights are designed to blend with the raw aesthetic of recycled steel while enhancing spatial depth and visual continuity. Advanced lighting control systems allow for dynamic brightness adjustments, ensuring optimal illumination that adapts to natural daylight conditions. The result is a harmonious integration of technology and materiality, elevating both functional and aesthetic qualities.
- Design Challenge
- The challenge was integrating seamless lighting into industrial steel structures without compromising the raw material’s authenticity. Developing billet-shaped LED fixtures that maintained a minimalist form while providing effective illumination required extensive prototyping. Regulatory compliance, thermal management, and ensuring harmony between structural elements and lighting patterns were additional hurdles that necessitated iterative design refinements.
- Research
- Type of Research: Applied Lighting Design Research
Objective: To explore innovative lighting strategies that enhance the aesthetics and functionality of recycled steel.
Methodology: Light modeling, material interaction analysis, and human perception studies.
Data Collection: Experimental prototyping and user behavior analysis.
Participants: Lighting designers, architects, and material specialists.
Results & Insights: The research demonstrated how integrated lighting enhances both industrial material aesthetics and workplace functionality, influencing sustainable lighting solutions in architectural design. - Inspiration
- Inspired by the recycling process of steel and Kyoei Steel’s corporate identity, the lighting design evokes the transformation of raw materials into high-quality products. The barcode and QR code-inspired light patterns symbolize digital connectivity and sustainable manufacturing. The seamless integration of billet-shaped LED fixtures within steel structures enhances the spatial rhythm, creating an immersive and futuristic work environment.
- Project Duration
- The lighting design project commenced in early 2022 in Yamaguchi, Japan, as part of Kyoei Steel’s office renovation. The design and implementation phases extended through early 2024, integrating advanced lighting technologies with recycled steel structures to create a visually compelling and sustainable workspace.
- Operation Flow
- The lighting design not only enhances the aesthetic qualities of recycled steel but also guides users through the space by creating a layered visual experience. The illuminated barcode and QR code motifs subtly interact with movement, shifting perspectives as users navigate the office. The interplay between artificial and natural light fosters a dynamic atmosphere that transforms throughout the day, reinforcing the concept of continuous material renewal.
- Patents
- N/A
- Team Members
- N/A
- Image Credits
- Image #1,#2 : Photographer Nobuaki Miyashita Variations, 2024
Image #3,#4,#5 : Photographer Sato Kenta, Variations, 2024.
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