Hanamidori Cultural Center

Hanamidori Cultural Center in Tachikawa City Tokyo, Japan by Atelier Bow-Wow

The following text is excerpted from 2006's Bow-Wow from Post Bubble City for Atelier Bow-Wow's Hanamidori Cultural Center (2005) in Tokyo's Tachikawa City. Images are primarily culled from the Architectural Photography web site.

This is a facility that intensively combines various functions of information dissemination and exchange associated with the Green Culture Zone, newly opened within the Showa Memorial Park.

The basic concept was for a "growing architecture," in response to the developing activities of green culture and for "parkitecture": architecture integrating with the landscape, in which interior and exterior are connected. Our intention was for a space as comfortable as in the shade of a tree.

The building consists of 15 cylinders varied by size, structure, and materials, supporting an undulating roof covered by green. Under a large overarching roof, the interior space is defined by a glass enclosure, and visually connected with the exterior space. Every cylinder contains a different room for a specific purpose, and is treated as an independent building. The use of space between cylinders can be defined and reorganized by furniture.

During good weather, the operable elements can be opened up, using sash devices to enable an unhindered connection to the exterior. The roof trusses are extended from the cylinders, are formed by a T-bar and are synthesized in the manner of a spider's web. The trusses become higher at the connection with cylinder due to its moment diagram, producing a crater topography like on the moon. These craters receive a thick layer of soil to implant large trees, and the overall roof becomes green floating garden.