June 25, 2009

PinkCow presentation

I’ll be speaking at the PinkCow next Thursday.

Pink Cow Connections #64: WorkVitamins, Bringing Perspective to the Office:

“Maximizing your working environment assets. Productive spaces to improve your business.”

Anyone who has worked for a typical Japanese corporation has horror stories to tell about the workplace. The rows and rows of small, steel desks with files and paper stacked above and below, the colour tones of Stalinist grey evenly distributed throughout the whole space except for the yellow smoking room , the artistic coffee stains on the carpet, the direct translation of the company’s hierarchy onto the design (buchos on the window, kachos on the end of each row, last hire at the end of the row), the blinds that are consistently closed and despite the top location of the office allow no views outside, etc.. etc… Is it any wonder that Japan has one of the world’s highest suicide rates? Studies have shown that the work environment has a significant influence on our well being. The work environment is business’ last frontier, as companies should stop to treat their work space as a warehouse crammed with stuff and staff. It is time to view the work environment as a powerful motivational tool to create a place where people enjoy working in, encourages communication and team work. The workplace can either hinder or encourage this.
During the presentation Martin will show an analysis of a typical office and the potential for change. He will explain about the methodology he created called WorkVitamins, which through a series of 5 steps has helped his clients to implement a work environment where work can actually be fun. At the end of the presentation he will also briefly discuss a book he is writing on the subject, including the growing influence that the internet has on our rapidly changing definition of what work is.

More here

June 19, 2009

Factory fetish

Saw these amazing night shots of factories in Japan at Bouncing Red Ball. There is something beautifully haunting in these pictures.

June 16, 2009

Economist Presentation Disposable Homes

The slides of my presentation at the Economist Intelligence Unit are available here:

economist_090616

Pen publication

The Japanese magazine Pen has an article on our work and my ideas on WorkVitamins. You can download the Japanese article here pen0011.

May 28, 2009

Sashie Masakatsu

Very interesting work by Sashie Masakatsu.

May 13, 2009

Monkey Business

It is said that when you would put enough monkeys behind a typewriter in the end they would produce something like Shakespearian prose. According to a test done by Plymouth university giving six monkeys a computer and produced five pages of text, consisting of mainly the letter S, and later the letters A, J, L and M crept in. OK, ok, QED : monkeys don’t write works of shakespeare. So what do monkeys do in an office then? Well, Pan-kun, Japan’s favourite chimp does pretty much what many people do in the office: ignoring strangers, wasting paper, and trying to become invisible.

 

October 4, 2008

omodake kokiriko bushi

I’m not fond of J-Pop (I hate it) but this is a great song, great video. Excellent cheapo Casio sounds!

May 8, 2008

The end of architecture

J@pan Inc asked my views on architecture of Japan and especially Tokyo. Although it is presented as if written by Jun Mitsui (I used to work for him), you can read the whole story here.

Jun Mitsui’s point that Japan is becoming a disposal ground, a toilet for foreign architects, is funny indeed, but I think rather outdated. Most of the interesting architecture in Japan these days comes from young Japanese architects, the days of foreign dumpings (potty training would be a better description), in my opinion are over. Don’t forget that most of the shit built here is by Japanese architects.

The new Peninsula, dumped according to the new colour regulations?

January 7, 2008

Why is Tokyo so ugly, but how can it still generate such fantastic architecture?

The question for 2008, and here is my (easy) answer:

1. Japan has the highest pro-capita rate of architects, of the 1.2million registered architects world-wide Japan has over 300,000,

2. There are very few aesthetic regulations: anything goes,

3. In the chaos architects work hard to make their buildings stand-out,

4. Tokyo has some of the world’s most daring and cash-rich clients,

5. Japanese construction companies (not only the major ones) are the world’s most advanced,

6. Buildings have an average life-span of around 30 years,

7. The city has been destroyed many times over (and most likely will be again soon).

November 14, 2007

Building naming

When we were expecting our first baby I bought a book called 10,001 baby names. For most high rise buildings here in Tokyo the owners (or whoever stick a name to the building) seem to have a list of 5 or 6 words that they then add the location of the building.

The words are:

Garden

Hill(s)

Park

Tower

City

Throw these words in a pot and you get:

Akasaka Garden City

Park Axis Aoyama 1-chome Tower

Roppongi Hills

Atago Green Hills

How very unoriginal. The list could go on for ever it seems. 4-5 story buildings are called Towers, and grey concrete buildings called Park or Garden.
Interestingly enough, sometimes a building is called after a location where it is not even build on.