BULLETIN
PRINT.IT
13
Konica Minolta has been
awarded a Japanese Good
Design Award 2014 by
the Japan Institute of
Design Promotion (JPD) for
the architectural design
of its new research and
development labs on the
company’s technology
development campus in
Hachioji near Tokyo.
Opened in April 2014,
the Smart R&D Office
for Knowledge Work and
Transboundary Communication
(SKT) is designed to encourage
innovation and collaboration
through a purpose-built ‘co-
creation field’ for employees,
partners and customers.
The design of the seven-floor
building also reflects Konica
Minolta’s brand message,
‘Giving Shape to Ideas’, and
the brand concepts of light and
colour.
Ricoh has opened a European centre
of excellence for production print in
the Ricoh Products Ltd. factory in
Telford.
Featuring working solutions from
Ricoh and its partners, the Ricoh
Customer Experience Centre for
production print will enable Ricoh
customers to see a variety of end-to-end
processes and workflows as they might
exist in their own facilities.
The Centre can also be used by
Ricoh partners to facilitate the joint
development of integrated solutions
offering a seamless client workflow.
Stephen Palmer, Ricoh UK Head
of Production Print, said: “This new
Customer Experience Centre reinforces
Ricoh’s commitment to the UK print
production market and will demonstrate
our manufacturing excellence across
multiple platforms and markets.”
The new European centre
complements Ricoh’s new global
Customer Innovation Centre in Boulder,
Colorado, USA.
Ricoh opens UK Customer Experience Centre
Stairs between floors support serendipitous encounters with
colleagues and give employees the chance to stretch their legs.
The Spectrum Wall is a manifestation of Light and Colour. Light
is represented by meeting rooms decorated in the colours of the
rainbow, on the basis that when light passes through a prism its
three primary colours – red, green and blue – form a rainbow.
Colour is represented by the horizontal bands of black, as
combining the three primary print colours – cyan, magenta and
yellow – produces black.
Eaves and louvres on the West facade minimise solar gain by
blocking out late afternoon sun.
Designed to inspire
Konica Minolta has won a Good Design Award
2014 for its new R&D labs
These themes are clearly
evident in the spacious atrium
at the heart of the office.
Flooded with light from a
large skylight and softened
by the planting of trees and
greenery, the space features
wide staircases that provide
engineers and researchers with
mental and physical stimulation
and the opportunity to bump
into and exchange ideas with
colleagues.
Employees can chat on
the staircase or, for longer
interactions, use laptop bars
or enclosed skyboxes around
the perimeter of the atrium.
For more formal interactions,
there is a choice of more than
50 colour-coded conference
rooms, while the Spring of
Wisdom in the ‘Knowledge
Court’ (at the bottom of
the photo below) facilitates
collaboration between different
teams and disciplines.
Befitting Konica Minolta’s
commitment to environmental
sustainability, the SKT has
achieved the highest level
of certification under the
Comprehensive Assessment
System for Built Environment
Efficiency (CASBEE), which
evaluates buildings according
to their energy-efficiency,
environmental qualities,
comfort and design.
Key features include solar
panels on the rooftop; natural
ventilation; skylights with
electric sunshades; eaves and
louvres to block late afternoon
sun; and sensors that adjust
lighting in line with natural light
levels. To maximise the use of
natural light throughout the
year, the atrium has an inverted
cone shape.
