For its first created office since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the challenge Matsuo Gakuin was facing is to find a solution for protecting its office users while keeping the aesthetic values the company has always cherished. A thunder shaped table runs along the office dividing the space into staff and guest areas. Glass panels were sandwiched between the board and its duplicate hanging from the ceiling. The glass panels run alternatively through two parallel lines separated by 20cm space. This disposition forms a protective shield while allowing air and documents circulation.

Tetsuya Matsumoto is the founder and Head Architect Designer at KTX archiLAB based in Japan, and a Lecturer of a space design course at Osaka University of Art. After graduating from the same university, he specialized in commercial space design and built a large portfolio of projects varying both in type and scale, from shops and restaurants to offices and clinics, and from a small pharmacy to a large Hospital. Tetsuya has received more than a hundred local and international design awards and became a jury member for several prestigious prizes.

Matsuo Gakuin is a franchisee of the larger Toshin Satellite preparatory schools. These preparatory schools are used by high school’s final year students to prepare for their national university entrance exam. The lessons are standardized for all schools in japan and are prerecorded. Matsuo Gakuin offers accesses to these lessons through its computer equipped classrooms.