When offices closed down due to the pandemic in early 2020, workers had to figure out their minimum needs — the basic equipment, space and environment for them to continue to be productive. Yet it did not take long for some to realize the goal should not be to reproduce the traditional office environment as closely as possible, but to create spaces and practices that could make work and even life in general even more fulfilling.
Hidaiiyo Co. has taken up this challenge, and with its new coworking space Trace it is taking a big step toward creating a work-life environment that nourishes mind, body and soul.
Trace is situated in Hida, Gifu Prefecture, an old castle town in the heart of Japan’s Northern Alps. It is a short drive from Takayama, the popular tourist destination renowned for its traditional architecture, particularly the steep gassho-zukuri thatched-roof farmhouses in the village of Shirakawa. Hida, on the other hand, boasts a historical commercial district populated by elegant wooden machiya (townhouses), Trace now occupying one of them.