We began the discussion of this project while the construction of the actual building had not started, yet. We had suggested that as in almost all of Japan’s office buildings the whole building including the leasable interior space is handed over in a completed state. Consequently, there is a lot of waste involved in the construction of an office project which requires a significant amount of restructuring and rebuilding of the space as is the case of a typical WeWork project. 

The concept of core and shell does not typically exist in Japan as the handing over of a project by the owner will involve an inspection by the Fire department which dictates that buildings need to be entirely ready for occupation at the time when the inspection takes place. 


One way to get around this problem is, as we suggested to WeWork, to be involved early in the project and work with the building owner to adjust the construction to the specific requirements of WeWork. Various requests that are typical as a WeWork standard but not for Japanese office such as internal staircases, large open ceilings and wooden floors required adjustment to the base building structure and as this was done during an early stage of the construction we managed to save significant costs but also accelerated the overall construction schedule.

The project has four floors, connected with a custom designed staircase.