Vacant Wood-Clad Offices

Japanese design studio Kurosawa Kawara-Ten designs the Ichihara Life and Work Commission Office. It used local and recycled materials throughout the process for sustainable construction. It used a vacant home and turned it into a workspace. It is located in the country's Ichihara City, which is an office that has a double-level workspace as well as areas that are made for cooking and dining with the goal of retaining the original elements of the traditional home.

Founder of the studio Kenichi Kurosawa tells Dezeen, "When talking about the local architecture, people who are living in the area always say 'there is no value', 'the buildings are out of date' or 'there is nothing to see.' We aimed to show that dealing with things that already exist was worthy enough in the area where the building is. The outshape of the building was almost the same as the building before. Eighty per cent of the structural lumber remained in the original places. But the beams of the roof turned into the beams of the second floor."