Where Sound Meets Light: BuzziChip at Japan Tobacco

The Challenge: Noise in the Open Office

Modern open-plan offices present a paradox. Designed to foster collaboration and spontaneous interaction, they also generate the very noise that undermines focused work. For Japan Tobacco' Tbilisi, Georgia corporate office, a space defined by floor-to-ceiling glazing, exposed concrete ceilings, and expansive communal zones, acoustic management was not an afterthought, but a core design brief.

The design team needed a solution that could address reverberation and speech intelligibility at height, in a space where conventional acoustic panels would break the architectural language. The answer came suspended from above: our BuzziChip acoustic lighting pendant.

BuzziChip: Acoustic Lighting Engineered for Presence

BuzziChip is part of our acoustic lighting solutions, products that integrate high-performance sound absorption directly into ceiling-hung luminaires. Made from recycled materials, each pendant absorbs mid- and high-frequency sound waves that bounce off hard architectural surfaces, reducing the noise levels that lead to cognitive fatigue and reduced productivity.

In this Japan Tobacco installation, the BuzziChip pendants appear in a warm terracotta-burnt orange colourway, suspended in organic, free-form groupings above the collaborative and lounge zones. Their sculptural, cloud-like silhouettes echo the biomorphic shapes of the seating below, creating a visual dialogue between ceiling and floor that unifies the space.

Key product features

• Integrated LED light source with even, diffuse illumination, no glare on screens
• Customizable in a wide palette of colours to coordinate with interior finishes
• Available in multiple sizes and configurations for flexible ceiling compositions
• Sustainable manufacturing using post-consumer recycled materials
• Pendant suspension allows an acoustic effect at the critical mid-room height

A Palette of Warmth in a Raw Architecture

The interior design draws on a tension between industrial rawness, exposed concrete, visible ductwork, structural columns, and warm, organic comfort. Natural oak joinery panels line the collaborative zones, while terracotta-finished cylindrical planters anchor large-leafed monstera and trailing plants throughout the space.

BuzziChip, selected in a deep burnt-orange tone, bridges these worlds. Suspended above the open lounge and workstation areas, they read as bold sculptural elements from across the floor, yet dissolve into the ceiling composition when viewed from directly below, their soft surfaces absorbing both sound and visual attention simultaneously.

The curved, bubble-form sofas in slate and sage green below create a visual rhythm that the BuzziChip pendants reinforce from above: rounded, soft, intentional. Natural light floods in through full-height glazing, and the pendants supplement this with warm, uniform illumination that maintains visual comfort through all hours of the working day.