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Architects: Tono Mirai Architects
- Area: 1415 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:takeshi noguchi
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Lead Architect: Tono Mirai
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Structural Design: Kishinoue Structural Office, Daisuke Kishinoue
A place with a life force that unites with nature. A new factory, cafe, and direct sales store were built in the city of Nagano City, Japan as a new development of the long-established Oyaki shop ``Iroha-do''.
"Oyaki" is a baked "food" using vegetables and wheat that has been rooted in the region 'Shinshu' since the Jomon period in Japan, and this architecture also aims to be a place where "the architecture that was born and returns to the earth" over a long time axis of tens of thousands of years—using lumber produced in the prefecture and surplus soil from construction sites.
For the concept, we focused on 1. Memories of the earth. / Genius loci 2. Local natural materials and traditional techniques. 3. Making process: collaboration with design and construction. 4. Uplift of the earth. A place connected to the earth. 5. Movement as a Life-living organism: creation, change, growth, and circulation.
The two circles representing the factory/region and the cafe/society overlap and interlock, while the arc-shaped roof resonates with the surrounding mountains built to meet primary energy consumption standards in Japan. The entire building is a 1,500m2 semi-fire-resistant wooden building with structural materials of cedar and cypress. The north side is a glass curtain wall with cedar drum pillars with a maximum length of 7m.
The Cedar beams and purlin on top of the radiating cypress beams, a rafter, and a roof with a 3m overhang of the eaves were hand-carved by a local carpenter without the use of a cane. It is done with the Japanese traditional craftsmanship method of fan rafters in the corner roof. Toplights of the rammed earth wall, natural ventilation high side window of the hall, and falling rainwater from the roof are connecting the sky and earth with this architecture and landscape, reducing CO2 and regenerating the earth.
