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Place & Society

Opened in August 2020 in Shimizu, Sunto District, Shizuoka, Kuwana Ophthalmology + Neurosurgery Clinic is dedicated to community-based care. Guided by the concept of “leading,” we developed a brand that expresses this commitment. Through a brand sprint, we articulated the clinic’s philosophy and translated it into a cohesive visual identity, a website, and signage that supports communication throughout the clinic, all in dialogue with the architecture. Our aim was a refined presence that moves beyond conventional expectations of a medical facility.

For the renewal of Rinnai Headquarters in Nagoya, initiated on the occasion of the company’s 100th anniversary, we produced the spatial development of the first-floor entrance and lobby, second-floor domestic and international product showrooms, and meeting spaces. Rather than simply renovating aging interiors, the project was conceived as an opportunity to carry forward a century of Rinnai’s craftsmanship while redefining, through space, the quality the company should pursue for its next 100 years. Beginning in 2021, the project evolved through extensive dialogue with management and teams across the organization. Rinnai’s history, technologies, products, and enduring approach to manufacturing were brought together through the aesthetic sensibility of shitsujitsu-gōken, integrating interiors, materials, furniture, lighting, signage, and product presentation into a coherent experience. The showrooms present Rinnai’s products from Japan and around the world, reflecting a business that today extends across more than 80 countries, while also revealing the history and values inherited since its founding. The entrance, showrooms, and meeting spaces were reimagined not simply as functional environments, but as places where employees, customers, and partners can encounter Rinnai’s past, present, and future—and experience the standard of quality the brand seeks to carry into its next century.

We redesigned the website for VUILD’s NESTING service as it shifted toward Co-Build: creating a place with family, friends, and collaborators.The experience brings the joy and process of building into focus, alongside the finished architecture. Photography, film, and CGI work with approachable language and clear navigation to make the service tangible. Ongoing projects and completed builds help visitors imagine taking part themselves.

For the renewal of the eighth floor of Rinnai Hot.Lab Hamamatsucho, Rinnai’s product experience facility for corporate customers, we led the planning, production, and creative direction. Hot.Lab serves not only as a showroom where visitors can see, touch, and experience Rinnai’s products and technologies, but also as a space for employee training and communication with business partners. Rather than simply displaying products, we reimagined the space as an environment where visitors could experience Rinnai’s technology, approach to craftsmanship, and the underlying aesthetic sensibility of shitsujitsu-gōken. Product presentation, spatial composition, fixtures, materials, lighting, graphics, and signage were considered as an integrated whole, creating a brand experience designed to encourage deeper understanding and dialogue. The aim was to move beyond a showroom that simply explains products toward a place where Rinnai’s technology and philosophy can be experienced and understood—a communication space connecting product experience, business dialogue, and learning.

To communicate FDM’s brand concept of “Slow Architecture—architecture that endures together with its city, people, and culture,” we led the concept development, planning, and creative direction of the television commercial. Rather than presenting a home simply as a product to be sold, we approached architecture as a vessel for everyday life—one that gradually becomes part of its place and culture over time. Instead of focusing directly on features or specifications, the film observes subtle moments of everyday life: human gestures, shifting light, the character of materials, and the quiet passage of time. Through these details, we sought to express the value that architecture acquires through being lived in and cared for over many years. Film, cinematography, sound, and language were brought together to embody FDM’s pursuit of enduring beauty beyond trends or temporary novelty. More than a housing commercial, the film poses a fundamental question: For whom, and for what, does architecture exist? It was conceived as a brand film that gives form to FDM’s philosophy and its vision of Slow Architecture.

For FDM’s corporate website, we led the entire development—from concept and information architecture to content planning, art direction, design, and front-end development. Guided by the brand concept of “Slow Architecture—architecture that endures together with its city, people, and culture,” we conceived the website not simply as a corporate platform for presenting housing and real estate, but as a brand medium for communicating FDM’s architectural philosophy, values, and aesthetic sensibility. Rather than presenting projects, businesses, and corporate information as separate elements, we brought architecture, everyday life, people, cities, and culture together through FDM’s pursuit of “Fundamentals.” Photography, typography, grid, space, motion, and language were integrated into a coherent digital expression of the principles established through the brand identity. Balancing clarity and functionality with a distinctive brand experience, the website was designed as an evolving platform—one where FDM’s growing body of work continues to deepen the meaning of Slow Architecture over time.

As VUILD’s brand partner, we supported the launch of NESTING, its new digital home-building platform, leading the development of the overall brand experience—from brand strategy and concept development to creative direction for architecture and interiors, CGI, and the website. Together with VUILD and BIOTOPE, we explored the intersection of vernacular architectural thinking and digital fabrication, beginning with a fundamental question: What does it mean to create a comfortable home for the people we love? Rather than relying solely on specialists or centralized systems of housing production, we explored the potential of self-build and decentralized architecture, enabled by digital technology and driven by individuals and local communities. Architecture was approached not simply as a finished object, but as a continuous experience connecting design, fabrication, construction, and everyday life. Working with LIT DESIGN on CGI and Garden Eight on the website, we translated this philosophy into both architectural and digital experiences, creating a new relationship between people and architecture for the digital age.

For Anderson Mori & Tomotsune (AMT), B&H connected brand philosophy with digital communication through language, photography, and information design. Building on “FIND THE BEST IN YOU,” developed for the recruitment website, workshops examined the firm’s relationships with clients and competitors to establish a corporate concept. Key visuals featuring AMT’s own lawyers and offices expressed its commitment to clients, partners, society, and personal growth. The work encompassed brand philosophy, copy, slogans, portraits of more than 400 lawyers, and website experience design. Alongside lawyer and practice-area searches, the information architecture gave prominence to the firm’s approach and international work. A clear, dynamic interface brought these elements together for users across different devices.

The joy of making and a culture of co-creation connect our work with VUILD. From its corporate identity and website to the architecture and digital experiences of NESTING, the projects give this philosophy a coherent, tangible expression.For the corporate brand, we refined the identity and clarified the website’s structure, combining digital expression with soft colors and tactile warmth. Nesting Architecture extended the work into brand strategy, creative direction for architecture and interiors, CGI and the web. Nesting Co-Build brought the process of building with others closer to people through a renewed service website.