- Year: 2007
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Photographs:Akiyoshi Fukuzawa
Text description provided by the architects. This building is designed as an office and warehouse headquarters of an electrical contractor. The site is surrounded by mountains and is in an old Ninja village called Iga Ueno. I intended to design a building which is an object-like piece of architecture just suddenly appears.
The building has an open space and a closed space for each of its main functions of office and warehouse. An object folded like a piece of Origami stands alone sharing the skyline with surrounding mountains and the gabled roofs of the old castle town.
Assembled as a skeleton-like steel frame and covered by one folded plate. ( roof & wall ) Sunlight and natural ventilation at the office is maintained by low windows and top lights which brings in sunlight to the enclosed warehouse.
Since the site has additional available space, the structure, span, material and plan are designed to be extendable. An additional theme is to use materials which can be found anywhere in the world to build the same building.
People, things and nature communicate with each other and the flow of light, wind space and ideas can circulate. I am hoping that the existence of this company will spread this kind of flow, standing there by itself like an antenna.
