Rakuten's Japanese Inspired Workspace

Consult and design

Founded in Tokyo in 1997 with the launch of the e-commerce marketplace Ichiba, Rakuten is now one of the world’s leading internet service companies, with a transformative presence in e-commerce, digital content and FinTech. In Europe, Rakuten has been active for more than a decade and has been constantly expanding its footprint to more than 14 different services. With the company’s growing presence in the UK, it became evident that Rakuten had outgrown their previous London office and it was time to relocate to a new state-of-the-art office in the heart of the City. The brief was to provide a flexible and collaborative workspace which fits an excess of 100 people with ample event space and meeting rooms.

Manage and build

We conducted a series of design workshops, including visits to our own office where Rakuten was inspired by our teapoint and agile area. Following the set brand guidelines, our team incorporated strong Japanese influences throughout the design. The client’s desire to create a small office for a large amount of people proved challenging but our team managed to work around the statutory layout of the building, coordinating built-in air conditioning throughout to support their fully agile working environment.

“Felt completely informed with the project all the time. Oktra were very transparent.”

Rakuten

The new space

Working with Rakuten was a fun and exciting process. The final space comprises of: an agile area featuring a large pop art print, a breakout space encompassing vibrant colours in line with their brand, private meeting rooms, phone booths and informal meeting zones. We were able to construct a multi-functional, open plan working environment that inspires collaboration and communication between Rakuten’s teams.