Description The client is a developer company. It purchaseda long-sought after lot in Ginza, and plannedto build a commercial /office building. The building site is on the Ginza 1-chome Gaslight Street, which is one street behind the Ginza Central Street. It is on the back side of the Mizuho Bank andPola Ginza buildings on the Central Street. The atmosphere is quite different from thegorgeous Central Street,and the site is on an empty street which is often seen behind the street withlarge-sized buildings. Attracting as many people as possible into such a streetis our task. The client desired the building to be a gorgeous existence. Inaddition, the designer desired to provide a “slight feeling of strangeness” tothe passersby that would attract them to the building. Considering the views from the inside, simplyobtaining openness with glass seems futile, since the outside scenery ishopeless. Therefore, a double skin structure is employed, which consists ofglass curtain walls and graphically treated aluminum punched metal. The façadebecomes a part of the interior decoration and obviates the need for windowtreatments such as blinds or curtains. By using a double skin, reduction of theair conditioning load and the glass cleaning burden was also intended. The irregular façade design was determined bycomputing a design to avoid arbitrary forms and to approximate forms in nature.We thought that a well-made incidental form would likely be a less-disagreeabledesign. In the neighborhood of mostly modernist architecture with horizontaland vertical or geometric shapes, the building has a proper feeling ofstrangeness, attracts special attention, and has an appeal as a commercialbuilding. The abstract flower graphic is used to balance the impression of thefaçade, i.e., to free it up from becoming too edgy. By computing the design, individual aluminumpunched panels are irregular with different angles and shapes, yet all fit intoa standard size, resulting in excellent material yield. To avoid being clunky,an extremely lightweight structure is required. Therefore, much caution wastaken in its details. The colored LED upper lighting, which is installed insidethe double skin, entertains the passersby with different programs depending onthe season. Expected tenants included a beauty salon and esthetic salon, andthe expectations are materializing.
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