STYLE
Working / Block / Multi-Core / Atrium EMILIO AMBASZ & ASSOCIATES
ACROS FUKUOKA
FUKUOKA, JAPAN
203
1994
1500-2500m2/floor 2500-3500m2/floor 3500-5000m2/floor
INTERACTION The terraced garden on the exterior and the atrium inside provide opportunities for employees to interact.
OCCUPANCY PATTERN The building is designed for multiple uses and tenants, and is highly flexible.
Terraces containing an array of gardens for meditation, relaxation and escape from the congestion of the city. 62
The north, east and west facades are glazed.
94
78
ACROS Fukuoka is a 15-story terraced block set above 2 stories of below-level parking. It accommodates administrative offices, an exhibition hall, a museum, a theater, conference facilities and retail spaces on four sides of the polygonal floor plates arranged around a circular atrium. These are reduced in size on successive levels to produce a wedge-shaped or ziggurat-like planted façade – a “step garden” – that slopes down toward an existing park to the south. Residents and visitors can zigzag up the stairs, through the greenery, to visit a belvedere at the top of the building. On the interior, the glazed central atrium receives diffused light through clerestory glazing between the reflecting pools on the terraces. The interior is also shielded from the ambient noise of the exterior by spraying jets of water that connect the reflecting pools. The terraced garden therefore serves as an amenity for the exterior while also benefiting the interior environment. Acros Fukuoka therefore transmits affects of terracing, interiority—exteriority, verdancy and panorama.