EBN project was engaged to build a cultural, commercial and educational complex in the urban epicenter adjacent to a transportation hub in central Japan. 

 

Situated next to a station serving multiple railway lines, the area is quite populated with commuters and visitors to malls connected directly from the station by elevated walkways. As the city is under the process of redevelopment, it displays a uniquely balanced scenery with residential and office towers and vast green landscape. Upon client’s request to design a complex facility to accommodate multiple tenants including a satellite campus and shops, we suggested a public place to drop by casually like a park in front of the station to promote social and cultural interaction with the community.

 

The lifted passage bridged out from the station is smoothly connected to the public lounge furnished with curved wooden steps where people would spend time reading or waiting for friends arriving from the station. The staircase surrounds and descends to Megumi Hall on the ground level, a wide open atrium to hold events such as local flee market, exhibition of the students from the satellite school, concerts for the community, etc. Its transparent facade would integrate the street with what’s happening in the hall.

 

The round plan on the ground level, posing a welcoming gesture towards the visitor, continues throughout the entire floors and displays a set of round slabs stacked up like floating bubbles, which would be occupied as a ‘margin space’ to circulate or rest outside of the rectangular interior area. These terraces are filled up with trees and shrubs to provide gardens in the air that the occupants on the higher floor would still be able to feel the nature.

 

Standing in harmony with the greenery and the movement of pedestrians organically, the building is designed to provide an urban haven for everyone in the neighborhood to come together and further to function as a cultural venue of the community.