A short visit at the Kengo Kuma office

A short while ago, I had the opportunity to visit the architecture office of Kengo Kuma and Associates. http://kkaa.co.jp/
Being one of the bigger offices which produces very interesting architecture, I wanted to a part of my internship here. But as they only accept Master graduates it was not an option for me.

At the entrance of the office. 

The person who showed me around told me that the working hours were very long (from around 9am until 10pm-2am) and late and that often the staff members have to come in on Saturdays (and/or Sundays) as well. Interns will make mostly models, but if they are applying for being a staff member, they should be able to work with technical drawings, contact with clients and presentations as well.
Different from other architecture offices, at Kengo Kuma's the interns will get paid. And if they like you, you may take a test of which the results will determine wether the office keeps you as a staff member or not. The salary is very low at the beginning and will gradually grow over the years you work for the company. This system is quite normal for Japanese offices.
There are people with different nationalities working at the office and a lot of them are from Asia and Europe. It seemed like a pretty diverse working area.

Front facade of the office Kengo Kuma and Associates. 

The office used to focus on creative and conceptual design, but in my eyes, these days the concentration lies a little more with commercial projects that are very profitable for the office, but less innovative. Although the office works a lot with scale models and plans, which in my opinion is an important process, I am not sure if this would really be my taste and style of working.

My search for a fitting office continues.