丰田逢妻会堂 Toyota Aizuma Hall

TYPOLOGIES Education Culture / Leisure
MATERIAL Glass
DATE 2006 – 2010
CITY Aichi
COUNTRY Japan
PHOTOGRAPHER Masao Kohmura

Located across from rice fields and mountains, this building is a mid-scale community center for people living in the area. The center harbors a varied program with a library, an assembly hall, a room for mothers and children, classrooms, workshops and breakout spaces. The different zones of the program are distributed on three floors and wrapped in sinuous perimeters with an ameboid form, so that their roofs protrude creating terraces and cantilevers. Each one of the levels has an independent glass envelope, defining the exterior image with the setbacks and tangencies of the curves of the facade surfaces.

The activity areas are wrapped in glass walls – except for the auditoria, which are double-height spaces. The center is set forth as a place where people can go without a designated plan, and where all the activities can be shared by everyone. This is why it is open and transparent, and people can perceive the exterior when inside, thanks to bright and open-plan spaces. The glass envelope makes it possible to create connections with the context, and several openings on the roof slab create terrace spaces on the top floor, from which to enjoy views of the landscape.