Seto
Back to Projects list- Location
- Hiroshima, Japan
- Year
- 2013
Public spaces of coastal city
This area faces the Seto Inland Sea and has a configuration of vicinal hills plunging directly into the sea, on the slope of a village which clings to it. The flat lands are naturally limited and a public space for parties and gatherings of people was lacking. So, in addition to seeking for corporate housing for shipyard workers, we tried to create a public space with construction that would take advantage of site conditions on the sloping top of the cliff and be open to the community.
Specifically, we prepared a cantilever escarpment, a volume of accommodation in 3 levels and opened to the local community its rooftop. This opened onto the beautiful scenery of the Seto Inland Sea, which served as a public place with a sufficient space to allow a direct approach through a large staircase from the road on the backside to the north that had a higher situation.
Structural ship hull form
The overhang which has a widely slender top of this particular scarp formed by a guide is intended to create a public space on the terrace and the widest possible area by setting a jump as necessary piles at the end of the escarpment so that no constraints is transmitted to the weakened ground . Nevertheless, what has made this possible is the presence of a continuous wall surface structure extending on three levels and a tower block whose counterweight acts around the opposite side. 3 main structural walls can be considered as beams height of 3 floors (about 10m), and in the short direction taken every 6000 mm at a right angle, they are combined with 4 slabs into a forms of tiles.
Thanks to these, the building in its entirety consists of a rational structure of ship hull with the constituent assembly appearance of a huge ship and constituting an embodiment of a reasonable financial cost.
Link area
The two light courts drilled in the rooftop plaza are transitions to descend to all apartments. Despite the form very efficiently exploiting the area, the interior corridors could be damp and dark without these two courts which also improve the light and ventilation environment in apartments.
The large stair, slope, cor-ten stairs in two light courts, grow sequentially while wrapping this concrete block construction in different ways. The fittings are steel treated with nickel to avoid salt damage.
The circulation of the apartments manages to fit perfectly into the continuity of the neighborhood. The project became a part of the city itself.