Text description provided by the architects. It is a small clinic along the large national highway of Toyota city with the scenery of so-called roadside. Requests from the client were the following three points.
First, it had to be a building suitable for the new shop named "Grow". It was named with the hope to make the clinic to be a place to help patients’ growth. This request was to interpret the name into space and materials.
Secondly, it was not only a space to take a treatment, but also a large multi-purpose space to hold a variety of events. Before opening the new clinic, the client had been renting a space of three beds. However, he had a thought to make a place of recreation and relaxation for those who like to exercise as well, as it was renewed. The site was about 12.6m x 7.2m. Provided the approach for pedestrian and the parking for two cars on the street side, floor area would be about 6.36 m2 at most. Inevitably, a building of two-stories over all is required with the treatment space on the first floor and multi-purpose space on the second floors.
The third request was low cost. Given the amount of money in accordance with the life-line connections with the common duct and the lowering of sidewalk, the budget for the building is approximately 10 million yen.
In response to these requests, if we could design the ground with a room for growth by using the plain wood that would adapt itself to the city over time, it would be considered that second and third practical demands included in the first conceptual demand. It is a space made of plain wood with a human scale, where the client can easily change by DIY. In order to do so, it is better to make the least separation among building, furniture, structure, and finishing in a space. If there are, hierarchy could be generated in a space, and the client may restrict himself by judging what is possible and what is not possible to touch. Here, the first floor is exposed mat foundation, and solid boards of cedar are used for the second floor as face material for structure. The beams of the ceiling of the first and the second floor are exposed with no finishing. The same material in the same aspect size is inserted between the columns in order to provide alternately arranged shelves for a variety of furniture and products of the clinic, and the housing fixture, such as the tread and the rise of the stairs, bench, counter, and others. In addition, even though the site is located in the Quasi Fire-Protection Zones , the 30mm cedar plain plates for scaffolding without molder processing was able to be used for the exterior walls by taking an advantage of the type approval and certification, and the setback of fixtures from the fire line. All fixtures facing the exterior are made of wood.
We think all of those small elements and the group make the building a mass of plain woods, and the mass becomes the base for the building. It would lead to "the clinic made of plain wood base" growing with patients who visit here regularly and neighborhood residents who pass by in the front of this clinic.
