This Meeting Room/Archive is a small addition to the existing facilities of Earthworks Projects, which is an environmental art activity launched in 1994 as part of the program for reconstructing the Haizuka Dam Area in the northwestern part of Hiroshima. Through the executive committee, composed of experts as well as representatives of the region and the Ministry of Construction, Earthworks Project continues to propose and carry out diverse educational and cultural activities.

Our challenge was to come up with a structure/finish that achieved maximum volume at minimal costs in the process of creating a piece of architecture that symbolizes the activities of EarthWorks Projects.

To create a building which embodies the activities of Earthworks Projects, we adopted a design in which the relationship between the structure and the finish is reversed. 

We set up a simple structure by arranging a row of gate-shaped frames (75mm dimension) and lining the interior with structural plywood. We then covered the exterior of the walls, and the interior surface of the ceiling, with a translucent film of corrugated polycarbonate, to allow sunlight to filter through the film and cast dim light on the floor and the ceiling through gaps in the plywood finish. The texture of the coniferous plywood emerges in the soft light.

* Haizuka Earthworks Projects

Haizuka Earthworks Projects is an environmental art activity launched in 1994 as part of the program for reconstructing the Haizuka Dam Area in the northwestern part of Hiroshima. Through the executive committee, composed of experts as well as representatives of the region and the Ministry of Construction, Earthworks Projects continues to propose and carry out diverse educational and cultural activities.

 

 

Project data

 

award :Canadian Green Design Award 2002、Grand prize / American Wood Design Awards 2002、Merit award / Architecture+ Award 2004、Finalist

location : Mirasaka, Miyoshi, Hiroshima, Japan

client : Mirasaka town

principal use : meeting room

design period : 1999.11~2000.01

construction period : 2000.01~2000.03

architect : Hideki Yoshimatsu + archipro architects

project architect : Hideki Yoshimatsu, Michio Maeda

structural engineers : archipro architects + SDA(Syoichi Kitajima)

general contractor : Chihaya komuten

site area : 5,249.00 m2

building area : 33.54 m2

total floor area : 33.54 m2

structure : wood ; 1 story 

issue :SINKENCHIKU 0008  / Wood Design & Building winter 2002 / hinge 0406 / Phaidon Atlas