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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Inariyama Special Education School in Nagano Prefecture, Japan by Atsushi Kitagawara ArchitectsAugust 24th, 2011 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Atsushi Kitagawara Architects Inariyama Special Education School (School for mentally and physically challenged students) We proposed the concept “school as a town”. The “town”-concept comprises two different meanings: The school itself is a town as well as it connects to the surrounding town. We designed several school buildings that are – just like a real town – surrounded by courtyards, open spaces, and small vegetable fields, in order to stimulate activities of children and the entire community.  Images Courtesy Takumi Ota
 Images Courtesy Takumi Ota
 Images Courtesy Takumi Ota When we planned the main gate of the school and an open space, we purposely conserved a small shrine of Jizo (guardian deity of children) and five big cherry blossom trees for the school to assimilate into the community. In addition, we were always conscious of developing a “town-like environment”. The appearance and atmosphere of the architecture, its structure, and the passage of light and wind are all designed with the objective of symbolizing a community with diversity. Moreover the school architecture enables children to make their own discoveries.  Images Courtesy Takumi Ota Almost all lumber we used in this project is from Nagano prefecture. 78％ of the prefectural land is covered with forest with a higher proportion of larch than other prefectures. 3,760m3 of lumber from the prefecture (equaling 28,000 trees and 250 hectares of thinning area) were used as structural and finishing materials. As a result, we contributed to keep 250 hectares of forest in a healthy condition.  Images Courtesy Takumi Ota In this project, we successfully used larches, unsuitable for lumber due to their twist, warping, and unstable quality, as structural not just as finishing material. Furthermore, we established a traceability system which clarified the growing district, the channel of distribution and the lumber mill for the first time ever in Japan.  Images Courtesy Hiroyuki Kurashima We applied Japanese traditional wood construction technique, which uses no metallic materials but instead solid lumbers, as seen at “Horyu-ji temple”. Utilizing neither metallic materials nor glued-laminated timber reduced energy consumption and CO2 exhaust from the manufacturing process to a minimum. Moreover, by simplifying the traditional wooden construction to make it a comprehensive system, a large-scaled wooden building with a total floor area of 15,000m2 was built at a normal level of construction.  Images Courtesy Hiroyuki Kurashima The school buildings not only have a positive effect on the environment and the region but also on he teachers and students. Trees, a gift from the forest, were first transformed into materials, then into architecture through the work of many people. In this way Inariyama Special Education School has become a project which unites “forest” and “town”.  Images Courtesy Hiroyuki Kurashima
 Images Courtesy Takumi Ota  Images Courtesy Takumi Ota  Images Courtesy Takumi Ota  Images Courtesy Takumi Ota  Roof construction
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Tags: Japan, Nagano Prefecture Categories: Educational Center, School |
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