ADAL CREATIVE PLACE OSAKA：展示、辦公與交流融合為一，探索新型社群連結模式
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
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ADAL is a furniture brand based in Fukuoka, Japan, with a long-standing focus on designing, manufacturing, and supplying furniture for a wide range of commercial spaces. Known for combining functionality with spatial sensitivity, the brand’s products are used in hotels, restaurants, schools, and public facilities. In 2024, ADAL chose a 40-year-old building in the heart of Osaka’s Honmachi business district as the site for its new branch office, which also serves as a live showroom.
Due to Japan’s building regulations concerning sunlight, ventilation, and neighboring properties, the structure was originally designed with what is known as slope restrictions. These zoning rules require each floor to step back gradually, ensuring natural light and openness between buildings. As a result, the building features a distinctive stepped form that gives it a clear identity within the dense urban context.
Rather than erasing its past, the design team at REIICHI IKEDA DESIGN treated the building’s original character as an asset. They retained elements such as the tiled exterior and the continuous rows of narrow windows, using them as starting points for the renovation and as anchors for a new spatial strategy.
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
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Office meets Live Furniture Showroom
Unlike a conventional showroom, ADAL CREATIVE PLACE OSAKA merges workspace and exhibition, offering a new way for clients to experience furniture in use rather than as static display. To support this dual purpose, the design team reconfigured the interior from its bare structural core. They stripped away all existing finishes and ceiling panels, reducing the space to its raw skeleton as a starting point.
The original interior was defined by a series of small, regularly spaced windows and low ceilings, which made the overall proportions feel compressed. The ceilings had been finished with coarse, rock-textured panels that exposed the shapes of steel beams—elements that gave the space a strong, unrefined presence, but also reduced comfort and flexibility. Rather than concealing these traits, the designers chose to preserve the building’s rawness and balance it with subtle interventions. Through careful detailing and spatial adjustments, they transformed the environment into a versatile setting that accommodates office work, product display, and informal interactions.
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
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Embodying the approachable spirit of “THE SHOW (Mitetteya)”
The overall design concept is titled “THE SHOW (Mitetteya),” a phrase drawn from a common expression in Osaka that means “Why don’t you come take a look?” It reflects a casual, friendly tone that welcomes passersby without pressure. This sense of openness and approachability is directly translated into the spatial design, encouraging people to enter naturally, explore freely, and experience the space as part of everyday life, much like strolling through a city street.
The designers aimed to capture what they describe as Osaka’s unique sense of distance, a kind of relaxed, unforced social interaction. This cultural nuance is also reflected in the relationship between the furniture and the space itself, where each piece plays an active role in shaping how people move, pause, and connect within the environment.
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
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The designer further explains that in this space, furniture plays just as vital a role as people. Every piece, from its scale to its placement and the way it relates to its surroundings, is a fundamental element in shaping the environment. The furniture is not only functional but also helps guide how people move through the space and where their attention is drawn.
By arranging seating, pathways, and spatial scenes through furniture, the designer sets up a series of interactions that can be observed. Every action that takes place—whether it involves conversation, pausing, or walking through—becomes part of the experience. This approach closely reflects the concept behind “THE SHOW,” where furniture and people together form an ever-evolving performance of daily life.
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
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The Play Between Seeing and Being Seen
The openness and fluidity suggested by “THE SHOW” extend into the entrance area. What was once a narrow rectangular lobby in front of the elevator has been reimagined as a soft curved threshold that welcomes visitors. This transformation breaks down boundaries and introduces a sense of spatial continuity and permeability.The glass wall functions like a framing device, similar to a visual installation in an exhibition. Daily moments and movements unfolding inside the space become subtle points of focus. It invites people to look while also creating a gentle awareness of being seen.
Instead of dividing the space rigidly into office and showroom, the layout relies on gradual transitions. Shifts in material, line of sight, circulation paths, and furniture arrangements define different zones. Each area maintains a degree of openness while allowing for nuanced separation. As people move through the space, they experience gentle changes in mood and function, finding places to pause, observe, or engage.
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
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As visitors move into the office area, the designer introduces thin metal panels suspended between the exposed ceiling beams. These subtle visual markers serve both as spatial cues and psychological prompts. They gently suggest zoning and rhythm within the open layout, helping users shift their mental state while also softening the visual weight of the existing structural beams.
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
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What kind of space can foster real-world connection
In a city like Osaka, where openness and intimacy are part of everyday culture, ADAL CREATIVE PLACE OSAKA becomes a point of exchange between brand and city. Rather than serving a single function, the space expands the brand’s imagination of what a workplace and showroom can be. It reflects REIICHI IKEDA DESIGN’s interpretation of viewing distance, whether it relates to human interactions, the connection between furniture and behavior, or the continuity between space and the urban context. The design aims to keep a sense of openness that allows movement both inward and outward, bringing spatial experiences closer to daily life.
In a time when community and connection are increasingly valued, what kind of physical space can support real conversations, nurture relationships, and make people feel welcome to enter? It is a question worth reflecting on.
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda
Photo/ Yoshiro Masuda