Japanese practice Makoto Yamaguchi Design has completed a headquarters for a game production company in Tokyo inspired by video game elements. 

Facing the site of an elevated railway where trains pass on average every 1.5 minutes in both directions, the scheme is defined by slanted walls in response to environmental elements such as light, wind, and sound.

Across the building, every slanted wall height is optimized according to the requirements of each floor. The third-floor walls, for example, are increased in height to prevent recording studios from being impacted by external noise. Meanwhile, the height of the slanted walls decreases as the scheme rises to open views of the surrounding city.

“The slanted walls protect the interior from the external gaze, making it impossible to tell what the building is for from the outside,” Yamaguchi explains. “Not being able to see the purpose is much the same for natural landscapes. The slanted walls are made of thin, ten-centimeter-wide aluminum plates, a material of relatively familiar scale to humans. Rather than constructing a large building with large modules, we brought small-scale things together to create a bigger scale. This approach echoes the way nature is formed and grows.”

Areas mainly used by visitors are located on the lower floors, while privacy and confidentiality increase as the tower rises. The theater and studios are placed on the second and third floors, facing the adjacent elevated railway, while the fifth floor sees a dining room, lounge, and gym. The seventh floor is reserved for executives to use for creative work or important guest meetings, while a rooftop features a barbecue counter and pool.

The landscape design and interior and exterior finishes are designed to incorporate gaming references such as gaming settings, regions, characters, and items. The references are incorporated as metaphors, which can be deciphered by those familiar with the game. “In other words, the headquarters building itself is made of the game,” the team says, citing examples such as medieval French-style chandeliers, contemporary Italian sofas, and bonsai trees.

“It is aimed to become a place for the highest level of creation that captivates fans worldwide and for supporting the foundation of the game production process,” Yamaguchi says about the project. “As almost all employees engage exclusively in creative operation, we focused mainly on providing a balance between concentration and relaxation while significantly removing the burden of operational work. We strived to achieve them by introducing slanted walls that characterize the exterior and a system to control all facilities, including security, with tablets.”