Innovative Commercial Building Projects : innovative commercial building

MOTIVE Inc. has executed an innovative commercial building project along Sapporo’s Tanuki Koji Shopping Street. The space demonstrates thoughtful integration of architectural constraints, environmental psychology, and playful cultural references.

The Tanuki Noboru Building’s design responds ingeniously to its challenging construction conditions — the building is surrounded on three sides by existing structures with limited material transport windows. MOTIVE Inc. worked around these constraints by employing solutions such as permanent cast-in-place formwork that reduces waste and logistical burdens. Rather than following the conventional shopping arcade practice of protruding storefronts, the innovative commercial building design creates a recessed atrium space that serves multiple functions — from capturing precious natural light in Hokkaido’s climate and establishing a distinctive architectural identity to subtly redirecting pedestrian flow through carefully considered wayfinding elements.

Image Credit: Ikuya SASAKI