Toward the Environment

We,Noriaki Okabe Architecture Network (NOAN), are a global – oriented design and research office based in Tokyo, provide a wide range of services.

Noriaki Okabe had worked with Renzo Piano for twenty years before setting up Architecture Network. During these years, Okabe was immensely involved with the construction and the evolution of Centre George Pompidou in Paris and many other works in construction fields. In addiction to these experiences, Okabe has searched for the directivity of new designs, such as a car and a large-sized passenger liner. In 1988, Okabe participated in the competition of Kansai International Airport Passenger Terminal Building as the project leader and, after the winning the competition, Okabe carried out this project as the president of Renzo Piano Building Workshop Japan. After completing the project, Okabe was independent of Renzo Piano Building Workshop and founded NOAN as a design research organization in Tokyo in 1995.

NOAN operates on the basis of experiences of Noriaki Okabe, from Centre George Pompidou to Kansai International Airport, and more multiple activities in design fields. Design research and practices of NOAN have done in architectural fields, such as residence and R&D and factory and Cultural facility and Commercial facility, and exhibition space design and railway car design, such as Odakyu Romancecar VSE & MSE. In these multiple fields, and NOAN intends to realize high-quality design, for the global natural environment and a native social environment and artistic culture and modern technical evolutions, and to operates design researches for a realization of a social environment with emphasis on the humanity