Emmanuelle Moureaux is Changing the Face of Banking in Japan

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 10 months ago

Tokyo-based architect Emmanuelle Moureaux is on a quest to make Japan’s financial services industry more colorful. Her latest work for Sugamo Shinkin Bank – her 5th for the Japanese commercial bank, all equally colorful – is located in the outskirts of Tokyo, about an hour from the country’s capital.

The new Nakaaoki Branch is located on the corner of a bustling major intersection, which serves as inspiration for the overall concept: ‘rainbow melody.’ The colorful protruding cubes are designed to create a rhythmical façade that changes expression cars, bicycles and people pass by and see it from different angles. Small elevated gardens are built into 12 of the cubes, where seasonal changes in nature also add to the different rhythms.

“The colors, flowers and trees appear in and out from the repetition of floating cubes, playing rainbow melody,” says the 44-year old French architect. She’s been living in Tokyo since 1996 and established her architecture and design firm in 2003. “The melody spreads happiness and comfort to visitors and to the people in the local community,” adds Moureaux, who says her use of color was inspired by “the layers and colors of Tokyo that built a complex depth and density on the street.”

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