An Office Where Animals Live

teamLab, 2017

An Office Where Animals Live

teamLab, 2017

The waterfall in the entrance is not a pre-recorded video but is rendered in real-time by a computer program. Previous states of the waterfall will never be repeated and can never be seen again. The waterfall acts as a curtain between the entrance space and the interior space, in contrast to the commonly designed entrance where it is not possible to see the interior. When people approach the waterfall it parts and allows them to see through to the other side.

Depending on the actions of people, the waterfall wall is an opaque wall, or a transparent window. Digital technology allows the entrance space to constantly change in relation to visitors movements and actions, connecting to the surrounding office environment when necessary.


On the other side of the waterfall entrance is a jungle (An Office where Animals Live). The jungle is filled with living plants that create the environment in which the animals that are projected onto the walls live. The animals also are not a prerecorded video, the movement and interaction of the animals is determined by a computer program in real-time. The flowers of a season bloom on the bodies of each of the animals. For example, sunflowers bloom on the giraffe. Visitors to the office are guided by the animals. Additionally, the animals are interactive, and if you touch their bodies, the petals of the flowers will scatter, and the animals will respond by calling out. Once a designated meeting room is reached the flowers on the bodies of the animals all scatter at once, and the animal will wait outside the door of the meeting room until the meeting is finished, after which they will leave.

The entire meeting room corridor appears to be all walls, but when an animal guides a visitor to a meeting room, the name of the animal appears on the door and an area where the door can be pushed open lights up. The walls then functions as a door.

Technology allows for a door to be highlighted when necessary, but at other times it allows for a continuous uninterrupted projection of a  jungle environment.