Endo Shuhei, Landmark of Kashiwazaki city against the background of Mt. Yoneyama – symbol of the local, 2015.

Architecture creates city landscape
This architecture is a new headquarter building of the confectionary company "Bourbon" based in Niigata Prefecture.
The old headquarters was built at Kashiwazaki City suburb, where the manufactoring factories are located. Bourbon started this project to move the headquarter back to Kashiwazaki Station area, where they first opened their confectionary shop, aiming to activate the Kashiwazaki shopping district and prevent local business declining.
This project was temporarily suspended during the progress because of the Niigata-ken Chuetsu-oki earthquake in 2007. Howerver, after constant examinations and investigations, the construction carried on from 2013 and finally finished this spring. From the very beginning of the scheme, it took 10 years to accomplish the project.
The building site, where the old founding factories were located, is relatively spacious compared to the crowded shopping district. To soften the building scale differences the extended front lawn is placed in front of the new headquarter building. It opens up a friendly relationship towards to the neighborhood.
This location can be seen from all directions in Kashiwazaki city. The new headquarters will be a landmark and give more expression to the city landscape.
Two types of metal plates were used for the wall surface. The reflecting lights gleam gracefully as the sun rises and sets. This high-rise building will constantly change the impression of Kashiwazaki city landscape.
The roof is the continuation of the wall. The heights of both glass openings and the roof alter on each side. Hence, the view from each direction slightly differs from the others.
In addition, the window openings of the curtain walls are built on each side of the building, taking in the natural sunlight and wind flow. People inside of the building could breathe in the fresh air and feel the seasonal changes.
Most of the office building designs regard effciency as the most important aspect. The boxy looking tall buildings are littering everywhere in the world. In this project we tried every possibility to make this building represent the local spirits and integration into Kashiwazaki city lanscape.
To optimize the floor usage and enhance the floor rigidity, we replicate the openings and support structure on the wall by certain rules.
To form a stable base foundation, the steel covering cast-in-place piles were cast to the bearing ground which is 60 meters underground. CFT (Contrete filled steel tubular) columns are the main support frame, and beams are of steel construction. Braces are attached to metal plates, reinforcing the frame rigidity in all four different directions.
In order to keep the lighting stable and to let natural air through, openings are placed on walls in all direction except the one clad with metal plates.
High-rise buildings tend to be identical and homogeneous, but the design of the new Bourbon Headquarter ensures the amenity, diversity, and openness of the space and structure. Although this project scale is relatively large, we took our time to make sure we did every best on architecture and landscaping, consideration of the neighborhoods, functionality of the space usage, and textures of materials.
The local company Bourbon has developed as the town has grown for 90 years. We did our best to realize the dream and image of our client for the next 100 years.