People-friendly, not car-centred
Health Centre in Kitakami by UtA/Unemori teco Associates
© Kai Nakamura
In the Japanese city of Kitakami, UtA/Unemori teco Associates have redesigned a parkade and commercial space as a heath centre with its own indoor playground. The project shows people-friendliness on the part of the municipality − and the architects demonstrate the added value that can be coaxed from a building type considered problematic in terms of urban planning.
© Kai Nakamura
The commercial building in question stands in Kitakami, a city of 90 000 located in the north of Japan’s main island, Honshu. Before its transformation at the hands of UtA/Unemori teco Associates, the unspoken message conveyed by the structure was “pedestrians not welcome”. A vehicle gateway and the entrance to the parkade on the upper levels were the only openings in the façade; the few ground-floor windows had been covered with film that made them opaque.
Now the architects, a joint venture of the offices Unemori Architects and Teco, have radically transformed the two lower floors of the eight-storey building from 1999 by opening it onto the street. A more welcoming message is now communicated by the large, undulant canopy and the two-storey glass front with large sliding doors, behind which the office and client service rooms of the municipal health and family support centre are found. The design of these areas is anything but institutional.
The architects used the tall storey height of nearly 5 m to continue the undulating ceiling inside the building as well. On the ground floor, it consists of translucent, 1.5-mm panels of corrugated polycarbonate with dramatic backlighting. On the first upper level, it is of reflective corrugated sheeting and is illuminated from below.
© Bertrand Verney
© Kai Nakamura
A bridge − which also resembles a wave − runs right through the two-storey entrance hall; it features nets that serve waiting children as a play area. The client clearly takes centre stage here, while municipal employees work in comparatively small spaces in an open-plan office at the rear of the ground floor.
The spatial program also includes conference and seminar rooms, an exhibition space, treatment rooms for patients of all ages as well as a ground-floor kitchen which offers cooking classes for parents and children.
BLINDTEXT Mehr dazu in Detail 3.2022 und in unserer Datenbank Detail Inspiration.
© Kai Nakamura
© Kai Nakamura
Lorem Ipsum: Zwischenüberschrift
Architecture: UtA/Unemori teco Associates
Client: City of Kitakami
Location: 269, Shinkokucho, Kitakami, Iwate 024-0092 (JP)
Structural engineering: Design Office MOMI
Building services engineering: ZO Consulting Engineers
Contractor: Hazama Ando Corporation, Obara Construction
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