The building’s skin – different materials have been made black with the intention that the building’s interior becomes like a background or black box theatre.
The project is now at a point where much of the structure – the bones of the building – has been wrapped in various coverings: the building’s skin. It’s important to note the work done by all members of the design team to make the structure simple, efficient, and elegant. As it is not built on bedrock, and due to the area being prone to earthquakes it was built on a series of deeply buried pilings. The building was also designed to be as light as possible. Along with a tight budget it was important to incorporate a light steel structure early into the design process. One of the members of our team is Kanebako-san, one of the most highly recognized structural engineers in Japan. He was able to calculate structure so that steel work could be as light as possible and visible columns could be as slender as possible. Although the building looks very simple there is complexity in its bones!
Kanebako-san with structural model
structural model
structural model
The window mullions (paper wrapped verticals in the image) are blackened solid steel and add to structural support so in combination all the elements can be slender.
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| left – first floor column locations | right – location of rigid walls for cross-bracing |
It was important to make the columns extremely slender because several of them are visible – this also helps to give the structure a feeling of physical lightness: less steel, less weight, less cost.
Project Team
Design Architect – molo
Local Project Architects + Construction Supervision
– d/dt and
Frank la Riviere Architects inc.
Structural Engineering
– Kanebako Structural Engineers
Mechanical Engineering –
PT Morimura & Associates, Ltd.
Acoustic Engineering
– Nittobo Acoustic Engineering Co., Ltd.
