It was a proposal submitted to an open competition for ‘Everfield Wood Factory’ held as part of Kumamoto Artpolis Project series. The scheme remained as one of 5 finalists.

 

The competition was about composing a new woodworking factory/workshop for the local carpentry rooted deeply in the community. It was required to design a 20m x 30m wooden structure to offer a place for promoting young carpenters that also would contribute to regional revitalization in the longer term.

 

Since such place as a “woodworking factory” is usually quite unfamiliar to regular villagers, we thought transparency would be an essential element for this project in terms of both physical and visual sense of intimacy - i.e. clarity in what is going on inside, the way the structure is built and displayed, and how the place is open for the community.

 

The project is made of 120x240mm indigenous wood material that forms overlapped lattice structure growing from each corner to finally meet each other in the air and create a columns-free dome space. The gaps between the beams are strengthened by small wooden pieces, for which the local residents can also take part in and draw or write messages on. The entire construction is to be handled by young carpenters as an extension of training.

 

This wooden structure is covered on the exterior by translucent corrugated polycarbonate sheet, that the participants can easily see the pure skeleton and enjoy their work. It also allows soft light penetration to either direction - interior space will gain adequate natural light during the daytime, while at night the glow from inside would permeate and light up the town. The wide front plaza would be suitable not only for arraying huge materials but for holding occasional workshops or events involving the neighborhood.

 

By pursuing transparency in the way the architecture stands, we suggest a factory as a friendly and symbolic figure of the local community in the center of everyone’s daily life.