YKK AP Holds Ground-Breaking Ceremony for the YKK AP30 Building

YKK AP Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Hidemitsu Hori) announced that it carried out a ground-breaking ceremony today in advance of the January 2022 commencement of construction for the YKK AP30 Building, to be built within the premises of the YKK AP Kurobe Plant in Kurobe City, Toyama Prefecture.

 Planning for construction of the YKK AP30 Building began in 2020, which marked the 30th anniversary of the 1990 establishment of YKK Architectural Products. The building will be built within the premises of the Ikuji Factory (now the YKK AP Kurobe Plant), where the YKK Group launched its architectural products business Functional Divisions of Headquarters in 1959. It will be YKK AP's first company-owned office building. The building will house a portion of YKK AP's headquarters' function and serve as headquarters for the manufacturing division. It will also be utilized as a base for introducing YKK AP's monozukuri to business partners.

 The YKK AP30 building will serve as both the company-owned office building of a manufacturer of windows and other architectural products, and as an office for implementing the new working styles that have been adopted following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its concept is “connecting individuals, organizations, and society, and sharing experiences and inspiration,” and the YKK AP30 building will realize a vision as an “office in a forest” by being friendly to the natural environment and the well-being of the employees who work there. In addition to the energy-efficient design of the whole building, the building will incorporate passive design that utilizes the natural energy of the Kurobe area, including wind and sunlight. It will also engage in solar and other power generation on its grounds, and aim to become a ZEB*¹ that achieves net zero or negative annual primary energy consumption and to obtain platinum WELL certification*².

■ Outline of the YKK AP30 Building

*1: An abbreviation of Net Zero Energy Building. It indicates an architectural structure that aims to keep the balance of its annual primary energy consumption to zero through energy conservation and power generation designs. According to the Act on the Improvement of Energy Consumption of Buildings (“Building Energy Efficiency Act”), and the Building-Housing Energy-efficiency Labeling System (BELS), operated by The Association for Evaluating and Labeling Housing Performance, ZEB is defined as an architectural structure that has a net zero or negative annual primary energy consumption amount.

*2: A system operated by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) that evaluates and certifies buildings, offices, and other spaces from the perspective of the “health and well-being of people.” Evaluation criteria are composed of 10 concepts including Air, Water, Nourishment, and Mind. There are four certification ranks (Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze) in accordance with the evaluation score.