Good Place Is Honored with the Silver A' Design Award for Recruit Umeda Office Interiors in Interior Space and Exhibition Design

Good Place honored for interior space and exhibition design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 20, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Recruit Umeda Office Interiors by Good Place has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Interior Space and Exhibition Design category. The award was conferred within the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided 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.

The Silver A' Design Award Explained

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.

More About Recruit Umeda Office Interiors

Recruit Umeda is dedicated to fostering a dynamic and innovative work environment, with a focus on forging connections across different domains, given that there are over 3000 employees. The office layout has been meticulously planned to optimize balance between concentration and communication by promoting a sound environment and facilitating visual flow. There are dedicated spaces to encourage casual interactions and collaboration, embodying the essence of Osaka and promoting a sense of community.

About Good Place

At GOOD PLACE, a unique design method called "Scene Design" is utilized. This approach entails the conceptualization and user experience of a space, which is then defined as a "scene." By aligning our practice with the business activities of our clients and envisioning the future users of the spaces we design, we implement a design approach that proposes specific spaces as solutions. We believe that by designing like this, more and better space gets created in the world.

Award Record

With this recognition, Good Place is a winner of 4 A' Design Awards. The awards span the editions from 2020 - 2021 to 2024 - 2025 of the A' Design Award & Competition.

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/169903
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/169903
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!169903
Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/298344
Further Information from the Laureate: https://www.goodplace.co.jp/works/works278/

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: Recruit Umeda Office Interiors
Function: Office Interiors
Category: Interior Space and Exhibition Design
Discipline: Spatial Design
Industry: Architecture and Packaging & Retail
Colors: Dark Gray, Silver, Rosy Brown, Gray and Gainsboro
Images: 5

The Recognition

Laureate: Good Place
Country: Japan
Recognition: Silver A' Design Award
Edition: 2024 - 2025
Design ID: #169903

Credits

Team: Kazushi Iwamoto, Chika Tanaka, Shota Kariya, Hanako Tanaka, Ayako Motoki, Kanon Takeuchi, Kazuma Kubo, Yusuke Miki, Fukutaro Takeda, Ryoga Shirakawa, Nana Oshima and Yuta Sawano and others
Image Credits: Keiko Chiba （Nacasa ＆ Partners）

Design Details

Unique Properties: Located in a 41-story skyscraper, Recruit Umeda has four floors of office areas and two break room. In this project, we focused on building "connections" between people and areas by incorporating the characteristics of Osaka, the location of the office, functional needs, and environmental considerations. The goal was to facilitate "cross-floor connections and acquaintances in other areas" through communication born from the office.
Inspiration: In order to accentuate the distinctiveness of each location, a design that underscores the unique qualities of Osaka was implemented. Given Osaka's historical significance as a vibrant merchant town and its notable features such as food culture and humor, zoning to promote communication was featured. A diverse color palette has been employed to create an engaging and dynamic environment, with dialects from Osaka incorporated into the design following consultation with native speakers.
Research: Regarding the research on the office renovation, an employee satisfaction survey was first conducted to define the problems. We were concerned about the difference between Recruit's goal and the Umeda base, which were described as follows: the office is too large and versatile, thus people do not know about what other teams do, and it was lacking communication. To address these problems, we established three measures: "Community," "Collaboration," and "Osaka-ness."
Challenge: Concurrently, the company modified the layout of other sites in response to a client's request to convert more than 600 pieces of furniture, including desks, chairs, sofas, and cabinets, from sites across the country to reduce environmental impact. There was a concern that the overall balance might be lost due to the repurposing of a large number of furniture with different tastes, but we were able to design without losing the sense of uniformity of the design by making various efforts such as painting the legs.
Realization and Technology: The refresh space designated as "CO-EN (33)" on the 33rd floor has been planned with the concept of "Zoning according to the depth of communication" to create an environment conducive to business development. The space will feature a communication board and a semi-circular counter, serving as the starting point for conversations. The variety of fixtures will ensure the space can accommodate a range of users, communication levels, and activities.
Operation and Interaction: In order to optimize the work environment and improve productivity, it is essential to provide a sound-environment-friendly space. This is particularly important in open work areas. On the same floor, both call centers and quiet focus areas are situated in close proximity, though they are not directly adjacent to each other. To foster an environment where employees in both areas are happy, meeting spaces and low partitions have been strategically placed between them.
Project Duration and Location: The design phase commenced in October 2023 and concluded in September 2024, with construction commencing in May 2024 and being finalized in November in Osaka.
Specifications: 11803.17sqm 33F: 20100mm×85000mm×2800mm
Keywords: Office OfficeInterior, Workplace, Workspace, OfficeDesign, Communication