Orange-tinted acrylic tubes and tree bark are among the objects that Sam Jacob Studio has piled up on the shelves inside this London office.
The office is situated in Old Street and belongs to Takram – a design studio that, until now, has been based solely in Tokyo.
For the interiors of its London workspace, Takram tasked Sam Jacob Studio with developing a "raw yet refined" aesthetic that reflects the company's creative process and diverse use of mediums.
"It's always great to work with clients who themselves are designers," said the studio's founder, Sam Jacob.
"We wanted to articulate something of the process of design through the project, a place where the practicalities of project-making become inspiring and unexpected."
The rear wall of the main workroom has thus been made to feature a series of white shelves. Each shelf appears to be propped up by different material offcuts or objects, like birch-tree bark, orange acrylic tubes, chrome pipes and concrete-cast geometric shapes.
"These are brought together to create a language of contrasting materials with different values, textures, finishes and references," explained the studio.
"Rather than resolving into a single aesthetic, the palette feels more like an architect's material library, where unexpected juxtapositions occur through cataloguing," it continued.
"It's a system that learns from the most basic way of placing one material on top of another, where the process of assembly becomes the basis of the formal arrangement."
Directly in front sits a long, communal desk with a powder-coated steel frame. Its countertop is inlaid with panels of pale-grey marble, plywood and cement boards.
These same three materials have been used to form a splashback and mismatched cabinetry in the adjacent kitchen. Cupboard doors have been finished with cross, triangle and U-shaped handles, nodding to the shapes slotted amongst the shelves.
Staff members can sit and eat at a monochromatic dining table and chairs at the centre of the space.
Private calls can be taken in the office phone-booth or in the meeting room, which is closed off by polycarbonate doors.
Sam Jacob Studio has been established since 2014 and works out of offices in Islington.
Most recently the studio designed the interiors of London's Cartoon Museum – features throughout the exhibition rooms include secret doors, faux bookcases and explosion-like openings in the wall.
Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.