Mitsuhiro Shoji - Uchida Shanghai Receives the Silver A' Design Award for Work at Nagasaki Office in Interior Space and Exhibition Design

The international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Mitsuhiro Shoji - Uchida Shanghai for interior space and exhibition design

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 21, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Silver A' Design Award in the Interior Space and Exhibition Design category for Work at Nagasaki Office by Mitsuhiro Shoji - Uchida Shanghai, designed for Regional Creation NAGASAKI Co, Ltd.. The result belongs to the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

About the Silver A' Design Award

The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.

About Work at Nagasaki Office

Work at Nagasaki is a coworking office set on the tenth and eleventh floors of a building in the old city center of Nagasaki, Japan. The two floors cover 4,500 square meters and are joined by a grand staircase that also serves as an open seminar room during events. The tenth floor holds a reception area, an event space and an open office. The eleventh floor holds closed offices and a meeting room with a wide view. Local materials such as Isahaya stone and Sendan wood were used, and a steel counter of 5.5 meters was made with shipbuilding methods.

Award Record

Mitsuhiro Shoji - Uchida Shanghai is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.

About the A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award

The A' Interior Design Award is an international interior design competition recognizing good interior designs by interior designers and architects worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to interior designers, interior architects, architects and decorators from all countries. Entries typically include residential interiors, restaurants, hotels, offices, galleries and retail stores. Awarded interior designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/interior

About A' Design Award & Competition

A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://designers.org/168791
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/168791
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!168791
Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/299866
Further Information from the Laureate: http://www.uchida-shanghai.com/

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Work at Nagasaki Office
Function: Office
Category: Interior Space and Exhibition Design
Discipline: Spatial Design
Industry: Architecture and Packaging & Retail
Colors: Black, Dark Slate Gray, Dim Gray and Silver
Images: 5
Client: Regional Creation NAGASAKI Co, Ltd.

The Recognition

Laureate: Mitsuhiro Shoji - Uchida Shanghai
Country: China
Recognition: Silver A' Design Award
Edition: 2024 - 2025
Design ID: #168791

Credits

Team: Mitsuhiro Shoji, Yasuhisa Makino, Makoto Hayashi and Kenta Hasegawa
Image Credits: Main Image : Photographer Kenta Hasegawa, nightscape,2025 Optional; Photographer Kenta Hasegawa, High-quality VIP rooms,2025 Optional; Photographer Kenta Hasegawa, 5.5m long steel plate reception desk,2025 Optional; Photographer Kenta Hasegawa, Private seats with a view of the landscape,2025 Optional; Photographer Kenta Hasegawa, High-quality VIP rooms,2025

Design Details

Unique Properties: Located in the heart of Nagasaki's old city center and its rich natural surroundings, WORK@NAGASAKI is a workplace that blends the grandeur of the natural landscape with a contemporary work style. This next-generation co-working space, which is based on the theme of incorporating the changing landscape over time, is a creative space that emerges with a sense of floating in the elegant nature of Nagasaki's landscape and urban materials, blending them together beautifully.
Inspiration: Research on the streets of Nagasaki through fieldwork. Design inspiration was drawn from nature. The main theme was to minimally incorporate aged natural materials and historical architectural styles influenced by other countries into the design.
Research: Fieldwork was conducted. Teams of local residents and designers surveyed Nagasaki to find out what styles and materials are used in Nagasaki for the purpose of researching historical architecture in the surrounding area. The team investigated the origins of distinctive styles and materials, and visited the places of origin of materials to record their condition before processing or to collect samples to explore their potential for interior design. For lumber, stone, and iron sheets, we investigated the processing process in more detail, and considered the finished state in more detail.
Challenge: When considering the quality and strength of the space, we decided not to use melamine or printed sheet materials, which have been widely used in interior design in recent years, for the interior and furniture. This is because we feel that the control of space through texture is very important in reality, and that fine nuances cannot be achieved with fake materials. Therefore, it was very difficult to control details and costs for each design. The low table in the VIP room is made of raw stone, so it took a long time to select a material that could be used as a table without processing. The tables weighed 350 kg and were difficult to install and carry in.
Realization and Technology: The project expresses a unique post-architectural, post-luxury design in contemporary Nagasaki, a city that has nurtured a unique culture influenced by Western and Chinese influences. Materials, styles, and colors were sublimated into a design inspired by existing historical buildings and townscapes. For example, Isahaya stone, which has been used for many years in Nagasaki's urban infrastructure, was used in its raw form for furniture without the need to make it more modern and primitive, and a 5.5-meter steel plate counter was placed in the space as an object using shipbuilding technology.
Operation and Interaction: A space designed to creatively support interaction, development, and the emergence of a new economy in Nagasaki, targeting companies, students, and startups from around the world. The location can be freely chosen to stimulate creativity through all five senses while experiencing the changing natural landscape around the space. The space can accommodate a team of １ to 30 people, and offers a high level of spatial hospitality with furniture and interior furnishings designed with materials from Nagasaki, Japan, for both concentration and interaction. The space can be selected from open and rough space to modern luxury space. Space is available to visitors on a time basis.
Project Duration and Location: The project started in December 2022 in Nagasaki and finished in October 2024.
Specifications: The building consists of two floors totaling 4,500 square meters on the 10th and 11th floors, and the two floors are connected by a grand staircase. The building is located in a prime location, surrounded by a rich natural environment and overlooking the mountain range and the old city. The 10th floor consists of a reception area, event space, and open office space, with the floor and ceiling materials cut to create a rhythm of space without blocking the view of the large space. The 11th floor consists of closed offices and a conference room with a rich view.
Keywords: Office,coworkingspace,Nagasaki,shanghai