A proposal to architectural design competition for an Experience Exchange Facility planned adjacent to Fude no sato (Brush town) Workshop in Kumano, Hiroshima prefecture. The scheme remained as one of 5 finalists.

 

Kumano, also known as ‘hometown of brush,’ has prospered based on the brush craftsmanship since Edo era. The new facility is to be a community center where the local residents and visitors would come together through various activities involving brush, such as calligraphy and brush paintings, extending to traditional creative exercises including pottery, woodcrafts, cooking and tea ceremony. These programs are further to be integrated with the exhibitions and events held at Fude no Sato Workshop, as well to the park spreading out to the mountains, as a comprehensive experience over brush craftsmanship in Kumano.

 

The conceptual inspiration of the architecture also derives from the cultural and historical basis on brush. We started seeing the spatial composition in relation with how brush draws a line in variable thickness and texture depending on the pressure, angle and status of the brush. We have one structural element that continues from wall to roof, then back to wall again thoroughly as in one-stroke drawing, which also offers a fluently connected spatial experience through the sequence of rooms in various scale and shape as the depth and angle of the shifted structure changes. The split under the lifted wall opens up to surrounding greenery or towards the courtyard in the center, allowing natural lights and ventilation to inside.

 

The flowing elements, changing its position between beam and column throughout the structure, run over the plan with a support of vertical elements and forms a circular array of gate-shaped frame. The length of the elements are restrained to be less than 6m in order to fully utilize general products and save costs.

 

Brush-drawing a fluid curve that resembles the geometric feature of Kumano surrounded by undulating mountain-scape, we aimed to create a cultural and communal center to represent and remind of the value of Kumano.