I am quite sure that many of us have heard of Uniqlo prior, as this fashion brand has made its way around the globe with highly affordable clothing that are also stylish. After all, we have progressed beyond wearing the skins of animals in order to cover ourselves from the elements, and would like to look good while doing so. The Japanese fashion brand has unveiled their brand new huge headquarters that has been laid out to represent that of an actual city -- minus the crime sprees and all the homeless problems that need to be dealt with in real life, that is.
Fast Retailing is Uniqlo's parent company, and they recently opened up a totally new headquarters in Tokyo. After all, it makes perfect sense to dot the metropolis’ waterfront with such an iconic headquarters, taking into consideration the company’s humble beginnings. In fact, the building has been referred to by many as Uniqlo City. This is pretty much an apt description due to the extremely huge scale, and Uniqlo's 1,000 company members made their move into the newly-designed headquarters earlier this January 2017. Located in Japan's Airake District, Uniqlo City is certainly a representation of what the offices of the future might look like. It has taken a really huge shift from traditional office towers, even from the previous headquarters. With Uniqlo City, it does not matter just which particular department you are from -- employees will be housed together as part of an effort to encourage collaboration. Apart from that, full-scale, mock-up replica Uniqlo stores will be strategically located at floors located below the workspace, functioning as models for the other global stores of the well loved brand.
There is one particular area that is known as the “street”, where this interior circulatory route will run the entire four-acre length of Uniqlo City’s offices. To make the “street” all the more interesting, it will be filled with social spaces as well as work lofts. The whole idea of the Uniqlo City is the brainchild of Portland, Oregon–based Allied Works Architecture (AWA). This totally new workspace will comprise of over 4 acres of non-stop indoor space on a single floor, and this is more or less the equivalent of a New York City block.
Boasting 200,000 square feet of space, Uniqlo City is deemed to be so large in scale, that Allied Works decided there was only one method that will make its layout be acceptable to the minds of those who work and live in it, that is, to lay it out as though it was a mini city in its own right. In other words, the space will include street names, "neighborhoods," as well as "front porches" that have been modeled after traditional Japanese houses. Uniqlo City was chosen as the name due to the system of streets and areas implemented within.
It took up to 8 months to design Uniqlo City, and this just goes to show how much more efficient life would be with the right kind of planning as execution of the design took a mere 5 months to complete. It must be noted, however, that a project of this scale would rarely have been completed at such speeds, but when it comes to Uniqlo, this is an exception rather than the rule. Perhaps it is meant to exemplify what Uniqlo is all about. Should you happen to order a Uniqlo sweater online, you should, theoretically speaking, be able to obtain it the next day regardless of where you are worldwide. Being quick, fast and nimble are pillars of the company, so it is nice to see the construction process follow a similar route.
