Ab Rogers Design used neon plywood to elevate this former office in Japan’s Kanazawa into an artist’s workshop, leaving just enough of the original building to maintain its brutalist atmosphere.

The space is the brainchild of Japanese artist Hiraki Sawa, who acquired the office in 2019 with dreams of turning it into a co-working space. Sawa’s ambitions quickly evolved beyond this work/play parameter towards a more holistic and hybrid ‘co-being’ space that is both a home and a place to facilitate the creative process.

The task of making the building habitable fell to London firm Ab Rogers Design, who used a less-is-more approach to transforming the office into a hybrid residency. Its concrete walls, floors and pipework have been left as is, with the studio installing moveable plywood walls to divide up the rooms. Painted in fluoro colours, these can be used to open or close spaces on the upper floor. Downstairs, a huge kitchen and dining table await.

Fishmarket is available to rent on request, with guests asked to submit a form explaining how and why they’d like to use the space. Sawa says he hopes time spent in the building ‘brings about a transformation of attitudes, such as unbridled imagination, resilience and restoration of creativity gained from the experiences there’.

Read next: Wild Kabin Co’s first Ontario outpost is a waterfront hideaway among the trees

Japanese craftsmanship shines at this Kyoto machiya turned hotel