Throwing ourselves into office renovation with a full-on DIY project

In the previous article, we introduced "How to create a ruler-style office ( The process from finding the right office to the comfort of working there )". This time, we will be sharing the DIY office renovation work that we carried out recently.

Monosus had 15 employees when they first moved into this office, but now it has grown to over 70. The lack of seats has become a life-or-death issue. So we decided to renovate the area that was used as a conference room into an office area. We had a designer draw up the plans, and instead of relying on a contractor for the construction, we decided to do it DIY, with the designers at the center and us participating.

This time, we would like to share with you the story of our "real DIY" project as we took on the interior construction work, with many members feeling excited, including some who had not painted wood since art class.

The first floor of the east building before construction. There was a conference room (left) and a break room (right).

The workplace is a living thing.
How to bridge the gap between design and site?

The construction took place over two days, on the weekend. On the first day, the members were three designers and about ten Monosus members who had volunteered. Construction began based on the blueprints that the designers had prepared in advance.

Blueprint

Day 1: Dismantling, building walls and table legs

Dismantling

Remove unnecessary shelves and doors. To make shelves that are nailed to the floor easier to remove, split them vertically with an electric saw, and then use brute force to remove the shelves from the floor.

Removing the shelves will expose the floor underneath, and new boards will be installed to match the rest of the space.

Wall building

1. Remove the baseboard from the pillar

The baseboards are in the way because we need to sandwich the wall boards between the pillars. We'll peel them off one by one with a crowbar. It's quite physical work.

2. Assemble the wall frame and attach the walls

The timber framework is cut with an electric saw.

Wall framework diagram

Here, before the wall framework is completed, we try out temporarily fitting the boards that will form the walls.

Something went wrong!
It turned out that the board was slightly too tall.

This office is a wooden building that is over 50 years old, which caused distortions in the ceilings and floors, resulting in uneven ceiling heights in different places and different widths between the pillars in some places.

It seems that it is common for wood to be cut on-site, but this time, due to the need to reduce labor hours and the fact that Monosus staff who are not familiar with the site would be participating, we decided that it would be difficult to cut the wood ourselves, so we prepared pre-cut pieces. In other words, we had to make do with the parts we already had.

So we adjusted the shape of the boards that would become the walls.
We checked the size of each wall board that needed to be adjusted according to the distortion of the ceiling and floor. Some boards needed to be adjusted to a trapezoid shape. We carefully adjusted the shape by cutting and filing.

The back side of the office wall after it was installed. You can see the framework we put together.

We attached the boards from both the office side and the entrance side, and secured them with screws to fit the framework. There were some tense moments along the way, but we managed to complete the wall!

First the wall is complete

Making shelf legs

Parallel to the wall, we will create shelves for 16 desks.

1. Draw a line to indicate where to hammer in the nails.

The boards were pre-cut, so we started by drawing lines to show where the boards would be glued together. We split into two teams to build the shelves.

This is the Nishijo, Nakagawa, and Matsushima team from the front

This is the Wada, Uemura, and Furuhat team from the front

2. Assemble the wood along the lines you drew.

Glue the boards together along the lines with wood glue. Once they have dried and are fixed in place, screw them in place with a drill.

The shelf has two levels. Today, I only made the first level, which is the part for the shelf (16 chairs x 2 levels = 32 levels). I will put the two levels together tomorrow.

I tried placing the legs in a temporary position.

The designer temporarily sets the completed legs and table top in place and checks their size.

That's all for the first day. To be continued on the next day!

The day ended when the walls and legs were assembled. Good job!

Day 2: Finishing the wood and setting up the desk

Wood Finishing: Sanding the Desk Board

The sides and surfaces of the desks that people touch are filed to make them smooth to the touch. The edges of the sides that come into contact with the body are rounded off with a grinder. There is a lot of wood dust, so a mask is essential.

Wood Finish: Beeswax

I coated each shelf I made yesterday with beeswax, which makes the wood moist and shiny.

Once you've applied beeswax to the shelves, apply it to the walls and desks.

Ahh, this brilliance...it's mesmerizing.

Assembling the shelf legs and desk

1. Assemble the legs you made the day before into two layers.

And here comes the problem: how do I connect these shelf legs?

As shown in (1) in the figure, the upper section overlaps the lower section from above, so there is no place to drive a screw vertically.

Initially, we thought that it would be enough to screw the top shelf to the desk board and the bottom shelf to the floor, and simply connect them with glue. However, that would cause a problem with the strength when weight is added to the desk, so we decided on site that we needed to strengthen the connection between the top and bottom shelves. We decided to drive in screws, but due to the structure, there was no surface to drive them into. So the designer solved the problem by driving the screws at an angle.

A designer driving a screw diagonally into the shelf legs

2. Install the desk top

After fixing the two-tiered shelf legs to the floor with screws, we attached the top plate. There was one area where the desk was not deep enough. We discussed whether to move the desk top plate toward the front or the back, but we decided that moving it toward the front would leave a gap at the back for the computer cord, which would be just right. We made use of that gap.

Dismantling and cleaning

Disassembly and cleaning will be carried out in parallel with the assembly work.

Dismantling the old shelf that was removed this time. Using a crowbar and a hammer, we removed the nails.

Wipe down each shelf for the new user. Wiping down the huge number of shelves attached to the wall is quite a task.

Finally completed!

There are a total of 12 seats in a row.

After the work was completed, the family of our CEO, Mr. Hayashi, came to the site, and his 4-year-old daughter, Kanae, also helped out.

The construction was finished just before sunset. We were worried for a moment whether we would be able to finish on time, but we were relieved when it was completed. We all congratulated each other on our hard work.

What changed before and after doing DIY?

The office is actually being used

DIY interior construction. The members were designers, CEO Hayashi and his family, and Monosus volunteers. They worked using tools that they would never have access to in their daily lives.
This is an office that was created together by everyone, going beyond the relationships of "designer and client" or "superior and subordinate."

When I asked the representative, Hayashi, how he felt after the event,

"After I made it, something that wasn't a thing remained."

He said.

For example, human relationships.
If nothing had happened, the relationship with the designer who designed it might have ended as a typical "designer and client" relationship. However, by working together to create something, something beyond that remained. The exchange of emails seems to be different before and after DIY.

The same can be said within the company. Kim, who joined the DIY project shortly after joining the company, said:

"It takes time to get used to a new environment, but I was able to get to know the company and talk to a lot of different people through something completely unrelated to work, so it was a good opportunity to get used to Monosus. I didn't have many opportunities to talk to Hayashi-san, but we were able to communicate naturally through DIY."

At first, Hayashi called him "Kim-san," but by the time the DIY project was finished, he had changed to calling him "Don-chan" (a nickname for his given name).

We also asked Kumagai Akiki, who designed the interior, if anything had changed before and after the DIY.

"The way I draw up plans has changed. I can now see things from the perspective of the builder. I now design with more thought given to what will happen after the building is completed.
For example, even when it comes to a single wall, you have to carefully consider the structure to increase its strength. You can see the importance of this on-site.
The outside depends on the inside. I think I have come to pay attention to designs that are not just about superficial beauty, but that allow the outside to shine only because of the strength of the internal structure."

Kumagai-san is in his second year as a designer, but this is the first time he has personally handled the entire process from design to construction. His comment that he has become more conscious of "realistic design" by experiencing the various problems and processes that arise on-site was impressive.

I think this is the same in other jobs.
In the web production we do, we also need to think about how the work we are responsible for will be put together at each stage of the process: [planning → design → coding]. For example, when designing, we need to be conscious of how it will be coded, and then make sure the coded page is easy to use, works well, and meets our expectations.

Through this DIY project, the participants were left with not only the satisfaction of having completed their office, but also the creation of new relationships, gaining new insights about their work, and many other rich experiences.

Above all, this is the first time Monosus has done such a serious DIY project.

Kim, mentioned earlier, also said, "This was my first time doing such serious DIY. I especially enjoyed using the electric saw. I'd like to try making some DIY at home in the future."
He said.

I got to try out electric saws and grinders that I'd never used before, and got a glimpse of the construction process for buildings... It was an exciting and fun experience. I'd like to find an opportunity to use this experience in the future.

Before I could even share my thoughts, they are planning to add a conference room and community space to the courtyard next month (May). They also have plans to renovate the Kamiyama satellite office, and it looks like their "Mono-rusu-style DIY" will continue in the future.

We hope to bring you the details of that event in this corner as well.