A Place Where People and Ideas Meet:
Loftwork COOOP10

Hello! I am Haraguchi, in charge of PR at Loftwork. At Loftwork, there is a variety of spaces you can use to fit your work style. One of them is “loftwork COOOP,” a space used mainly for meetings and events. It is located at the top of the hill of Dogenzaka in Shibuya. Because it is located on the 10th floor, it has good ventilation, and at night, the lighting is nice, and the space has a good ambience.

This is how it looks when no one is here. As you can see, there are no partitions! Talk about airy. But the space is also used for meetings. Wait, how do you manage security? You may wonder. This will be answered later.

The counter seats by the window are all equipped with electrical outlets. If you only look at this area, it’s totally a café! Right below, you can see Route 246 and the Tokyo Expressway. I really like the expansive view from these seats. I see some people using the counters as a standing desk.

People tend to drink more at the counter. One drink leads to another, and another. Maybe the same rule applies to meetings. The relaxed and casual vibes in meetings at the counter gives us ideas one after another.

The space is not only for meetings, but also used for lunch. We see experienced PRs who are completely multi-tasking with their PCs open, with a magazine in one hand, and eating lunch while striking up a conversation.

Partitions with casters come in handy in a space without partitions. Loftwork uses whiteboards as partitions, so it serves a double duty of note taking and parting, depending on the situation.

There are times when people from outside the company participate in meetings, but to borrow representative director Hayashi’s words, “Loftwork members are well-trained.” Although the meeting space may be partitioned off visually, the top and bottom, left and right are wide open, so the sound obviously carries through. Nonetheless, because the members know intuitively how to speak at a considerate sound level, and how to place the partitions to keep a reasonable distance, it is almost impossible to overhear what is being discussed in other meetings.

So please feel at ease when coming for meetings!

This is a scene from a learning platform “Open CU.” It looks like a workshop to experience “sympathetic communication” but I wonder what is happening here…

This is a launching party for the new company Hidakuma. It is more three-dimensional by utilizing two sides fully.

This is a monthly office event called “Creative Meeting.” With beer in one hand, the participants listen to the member’s presentation. It looks like a pitch event for start-ups.

Loftwork COOOP is used for many purposes. We interviewed the originator, representative Suwa, about the background of how this space was conceived, and the important design aspects of the space.

Q：Why did you decide to create “loftwork COOOP” in the first place?

When the first floor was not used as the FabCafe yet, it was used as a free space called “loftwork Ground.”
And as events and meetings were being held, I noticed the difference in atmosphere depending on the height and distance of seats, whether you’re seated or standing at the counter, or meetings held on sofas or face-to-face at desks. Because the 10th floor was open, I decided to create a space integrating those aspects into the design.

Q：What were some of the things you paid special attention to?

This was around the time words like free-address office and in-house co-working space were beginning to be heard frequently. Although Loftwork is a fixed desk office space, since the 10th floor was renovated, everybody is sitting wherever is available as they please. They move to wherever feels comfortable. When people relocate to other places, their philosophy, ideas and skills relocate. Because there are many projects at Loftwork, there are many things to share, and thus, this “transfer efficiency” was taken into design consideration.
The former “loftwork Ground” space at Loftwork is now the FabCafe. Meetings and events were held here. The origin of the name “Ground” was “Because it’s on the ground floor.” (!)
Some may have already noticed. Yes, the name of the 10th floor of Loftwork has changed. What used to be called “loftwork Lab” is now “loftwork COOOP.” Stay tuned to what will happen here in the future!