Equipment that supports trust and creativity (machinery)
Air conditioning that creates flexible offices

This headquarters/innovation center brings together business, development, corporate, and other departments in a place where optical equipment manufacturer Nikon has had its base for over 100 years and has produced a wide variety of products and services. It will be a place for new interactions and creativity both inside and outside the company, with not only offices but also a hall, dining area, lab, and corporate museum.

The striking exterior with horizontal lines is befitting of the company's motto of "changing the future with light," and is made up of a 2.4m-deep horizontal canopy that suppresses solar radiation and a light shelf that captures reflected light. By utilizing the inside of this horizontal canopy as a route for air conditioning ducts, we have created a pillar-free office space with high ceilings that can flexibly respond to future changes.
We will explore how this project achieved ZEB Ready by drastically reducing the energy consumption of the entire building while creating an attractive office space.

The main theme in the air conditioning design was to create a distinctive column-free space with an exposed PC floor ceiling, measuring 16 x 160m, and to avoid creating a dropped ceiling in order to flexibly respond to future changes.

To solve this difficult problem, we considered several different air conditioning methods. With the conventional ceiling outlet method, it is necessary to install ducts on the ceiling surface, which compromises the aesthetic appeal of the exposed PC slab ceiling. On the other hand, walloutlet method,which utilizes the Coanda effect,the This means that it would be impossible to build partitions all the way up to the ceiling without blocking the airflow, making it difficult to accommodate future changes.

As a result, the design, structural, and equipment designers met and held repeated discussions, and decided to plan an "eaves duct type underfloor air conditioning system," which would place air conditioning machine rooms for underfloor air conditioning in the four corners of each floor and use the horizontal eaves as an air conditioning duct route.

The underfloor air outlet system is highly energy efficient as it can efficiently cool only the occupied area, and is an air conditioning system that can be easily expanded or relocated. This has the advantage of being able to flexibly accommodate future changes to the office layout.

On the other hand, this air conditioning method pressurizes the entire OA floor, which makes it difficult to control the air volume for each area. Therefore, in this plan, branch ducts are installed inside the perimeter counter for each span from the ducts that run around the perimeter of the building through the horizontal eaves, and VAV (variable air volume devices) are installed there, creating a system that can control the air volume according to the heat load of each perimeter zone.

We believe we have succeeded in creating a distinctive space that can flexibly adapt to future changes with a highly energy-efficient air conditioning system.

MEP Engineering work does not end with a desk-based design. In order to achieve the unprecedented idea of "routing the duct inside the eaves," extremely difficult on-site studies were continued.
In addition to issues in the equipment field, such as the duct material, construction procedures, and how to insulate and hang it, we also had repeated discussions with the contractor and manufacturer about how to stop water from entering the eaves, how to resolve the conflict between the duct and facade material, and when to carry out the construction in parallel with facade work.

The placement of the floor outlets was decided by conducting an airflow analysis on the OA floor and comparing the results with the layout of the fixtures. However, the actual air flow does not always match the simulation. In places where the airflow speed was weak during the air conditioning test run, we installed floor outlets with fans to increase the speed, and in places where the airflow was strong, we installed guide vanes (air straightening plates) to diffuse the airflow. We continued to make fine adjustments by trial and error until the very end, working with the contractor.

Additionally, we planned a ceiling chamber type air conditioning and mechanical smoke exhaust system that utilizes the gaps in the PC floor slab in the ceiling as an air conditioning return and slit openings for smoke exhaust, achieving a completely ductless office space through displacement ventilation.
By skillfully integrating the air conditioning system with the necessary architectural design and structural features, such as the horizontal eaves and PC slabs, we believe we have been able to create an attractive and functional office space.