Designer Insights: The Future of Offices
Vol.10 ITOKI’s Bold Experiment: Reimagining Offices and Factories as a Design House
One of furniture maker ITOKI’s main factories is the Omihachiman Factory in Shiga Prefecture, near Kyoto, Japan. The chair factory on its premises was revamped, incorporating the company’s latest philosophy, and reopened as the “ITOKI DESIGN HOUSE” in 2025. In January 2026, ITOKI daringly unveiled its business model, usable at any company, to the media. This report dives into their "latest spaces for work".
Report by Miki Homma, Lifestyle Journalist
The ITOKI factory in Omihachiman was established in 1972 and employs 521 people. The most central piece of office furniture, the chair, is researched and manufactured here. The chair factory has an area of 556 m². Floors one to four have been remade as spaces that make it easy for the design team, staff and factory lines to “co-create”. The name “chair factory” has been retired, and the site is now collectively known as ITOKI DESIGN HOUSE SHIGA.
Factories are often located in suburban areas. The physical and psychological distance between places where things are made and places where meetings take place is a challenge faced by many industries. Issues of location, combined with the strong image of monotonous work, make recruitment difficult as well. The company decided to proceed with this renewal with the aim of reasserting factories as one of the most creative places.
The “third wave” sweeping office spaces
In December 2025, a new chair titled “SHIGA”, designed by Fumie Shibata, was unveiled. Positioned as a higher-end model above ITOKI’s hit product “vertebra”, it was created by making full use of DESIGN HOUSE SHIGA. Its components are currently on display on the first floor of the DESIGN HOUSE. The design team came up with them, too, with inspiration taken from parts found within the factory.
As ITOKI president Koji Minato explains, “A third wave is coming to offices. The first wave was the spread of remote work due to the pandemic. The second wave was the return to offices, as workers wanted to come into the office and gather together again. The third is reforming the way people work in factories. In this factory, the manufacturing lines and development offices are adjacent and almost directly connected, making it easy to move between them. We have also incorporated digital tools, placing importance on communication between manufacturing and development.”
Let’s take a look inside.