SHIROIYA HOTEL

© Katsumasa Tanaka

The project was to rejuvenate a defunct building in the centre of Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture. Formerly belonging to a long established inn, the work was intended to assist in regeneration of the whole city centre. The brief was to renovate the four-storey reinforced concrete main building into which the inn had moved some 40 years ago. This would be called the Heritage Tower. The second task was to construct a new building, to be called the Green Tower.
The design team visited the site at the earliest opportunity, and found a banal four-storey RC structure. They felt that something drastic was needed to realise any potentiality, and at the start of the design process, they decided to dismantle the walls and floors across all four storeys to create a gigantic central atrium This initial idea inspired the ensuing design concepts.
Lounge space in the atrium’s ground level serves as a ‘living room for the city’. It is continuous with the street outside, inviting people in, as a place for all kinds of people to meet and gather. The huge cavity, with its powerful concrete columns and exposed beams, is filled with the natural rays from upper-level skylights. It is a city-scale internal piazza where diverse elements coexist, such as artworks, plants, furniture, curtains and staircases. When a visitor climbs the stairs, they perceive spatial changes, stretching and reducing in-depth and overlapping in all directions, as their sight-lines and body-direction alter along the route. This replicates the experience of moving through an actual city. The seamless three-dimensionality continues right up to the top of the atrium. This vertical-cavity forms a 3D urban district of streets, which continue on from outdoor pathways. At the same time, the atrium is a piazza, or ‘room belonging to the city’, for diverse objects, people and activities.
The new building is adjacent to the old one. Its location was formerly a terrace over a tributary of Tone River, and the two sites have a height difference equivalent to one storey. Originally, the main building had a public footpath traversing its site from the main road at the front, to Babakkawa-dori street in the back. They therefore proposed a green bank to function as similarly, running from the main road to the rear street, which would also compensate for the height difference. The architects created a raised bank to offer a new urban space and to be a three-dimensional extension of the existing route. It is also a spatial expansion of the sidewalk, and is surrounded by curved surfaces. This bank is coupled with the main building on the concept of oppositions, such as new/old, outside/inside and urban/architectural.

© Katsumasa Tanaka

도시재생의 발판이 되는 녹색 언덕, 시로이야 호텔
시로이야 호텔은 군마현 마에바시 중심에 있는 사라진 건물을 되살리기 위해 시작됐다. 건축가는 도시의 재생을 돕기 위해 약 40년 전에 여관이 이전한 4층 규모의 철근콘크리트 본관 건물을 개조했는데, 이 부분이 “헤리티지 타워”이며, 추가적으로 “그린 타워”라 불리는 새 건물이다.
디자인팀은 오래된 건물의 잠재력을 끌어올리는 방법을 물색했고, 설계를 시작할 때 4층 전체의 벽과 바닥에 거대한 중앙 아트리움을 만들기로 결정했다. 아트리움 1층의 라운지 공간은 “도시의 거실” 역할을 한다. 이 라운지 공간은 다양한 사람들이 만나고 모이는 장소이며, 사람들을 호텔로 끌어들이는 외부의 거리와 연결된다. 강력한 콘크리트 기둥과 노출 천장은 상부 채광창에서 나오는 자연광으로 가득 차도록 계획했다. 이는 예술 작품, 식물, 가구, 커튼, 계단 등 다양한 요소가 공존하는 도시 규모의 내부 광장을 표현한다. 투숙객이 계단을 올라갈 때는 시선과 신체 방향이 경로를 따라 변경되면서 깊이가 늘어났다 줄어들고, 모든 방향으로 겹치는 등 공간 변화를 감지한다. 이러한 경험은 실제 도시 속에서 이동하는 경험이 재현된 것이며, 이 매끄러운 3차원적 모습은 아트리움의 꼭대기까지 이어진다. 이 수직 공간은 야외 통로에서 계속되는 거리의 삼차원적인 도시 구역을 재현한다. 동시에 이 아트리움은 다양한 사물, 사람, 활동을 위한 광장 또는 “도시 속 방” 같은 공간이 되는 것이다.
새 건물은 이전 건물에 인접해 있다. 그 위치는 이전에 톤강 지류 위의 테라스였으며 두 곳의 높이 차이는 건물 1층 정도 높이다. 원래 본관에는 정면의 주요 도로에서 뒤쪽의 바바카와도리 거리까지 부지를 가로 지르는 공공 보도가 있었다. 따라서 디자인팀은 주요 도로에서 뒷길로 이어지는 녹색의 제방을 만들어냈고, 이는 대지의 등고 차이를 자연스럽게 연결시킨다. 새로운 도시 공간을 제공하고 기존 경로를 3차원적으로 확장하는 시로이야 호텔은 길에서부터 확장되는 공간이기도 하다. 오래된 것과 새로운 것, 도시와 건축을 하나로 엮어내는 새로운 거점의 공간이 되는 호텔이다.

© Katsumasa Tanaka

© Katsumasa Tanaka

© Daici Ano, Tomoyuki Kusunose

© Katsumasa Tanaka

© Katsumasa Tanaka

© Katsumasa Tanaka

© Daici Ano

© Daici Ano, Tomoyuki Kusunose

© Katsumasa Tanaka

SECTION

FLOOR PLAN

Architect SOU FUJIMOTO ARCHITECTS
Location Maebashi City, Gunma, Japan
Gross floor area 2,565.46㎡ (Heritage Tower: 1,744.52㎡, Green Tower: 820.94㎡)
Principal architect Sou Fujimoto
Guest room design Michele De Lucchi, Jasper Morrison, Leandro Erlich, Sou Fujimoto
Landscape design Taichi Saito(Solso)
Lighting design Hiroyasu Shoji
Textile design Yoko Ando
Restaurant design Shinsuke Kai(Esquisse, inc.)
Interior Tomomi Nagayama
Client SHIROIYA HOTEL Inc.
Photographer Katsumasa Tanaka, Daici Ano, Tomoyuki Kusunose

 

해당 프로젝트는 건축문화 2021년 8월호(Vol. 483)에 게재되었습니다.
The project was published in the August, 2021 issue of the magazine(Vol. 482).

August 2021 : vol. 483