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You may have heard of UNIQLO City located in Ariake, Tokyo, Japan, a workspace known for its spacious design inspired by a city concept.
Recently, inspired by UNIQLO City's design, the brand's Malaysia office in Petaling Jaya came up with a similar concept for its new workspace, with an aim to build a more cohesive work culture.
Human Resources reached out to Jennifer Cheong, Manager, Store Design, UNIQLO Malaysia, to find out more about how employees can benefit from this new space. Here's what she had to say.
Q What spurred your company’s decision to create this office concept?
Similar to UNIQLO’s Philosophy for "LifeWear", we wanted to pursue the same ideology In creating a comfortable and highly -functional workspace for staff to work in day in day out. Inspired by UNIQLO CITY in Ariake, the entire 16,000 sq ft of space is segregated into public sections where it houses the reception, a waiting lounge and a huge VC Boardroom and as for the private, it caters additional meeting rooms, an open-plan-office and a "homely semi-lux" kitchen.The open-plan-office currently fits 150 people and is designed with lots of flexibility to allow for expansion in the near future. Meanwhile, the monotonous space is broken down with clusters of informal lounges to accommodate current nomadic working lifestyles. Another focal point at UNIQLO Malaysia’s new office is definitely the pantry area where it serves as the social hub of the office; bringing people together to mingle and build a corporate culture that could improve team work and enhance communications between different departments.
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Less is beautiful and less is not always an understatement.
- Jennifer Cheong
Q How does creating an innovative and interactive workplace help with the company culture?
We feel with the right balance of a collaborative space of retreat and concentration, it will ultimately improve productivity.We believe that If we want to “Change the way we work, we should first change the space we work in”. A boring workspace that lacks innovation and fluidity will only encourage employees to maintain their old working habits.
Q What advice would you give other companies that are planning on redecorating their offices?
To always step back and re-evaluate the concept as a whole or looking at it from different perspectives; having too many designs, colours and materials can be disastrous. Less is always more. Less is beautiful and less is not always an understatement.Photos / provided
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