Ondo Civic Centre, Kure City, Japan

The architectural theme in this project was to take the characteristic view of this area, which consists of roofs and tiles, and to incorporate it into the building. An attempt was made to bring the structure of the landscape into the detail of the roof.

The architecture aims to gently float up to the surface, while blending in with the environment. Although the scale of the Civic Centre is different from the houses around it, they still share the same materials – roof tiles – which form the buildings, and this is one of the strong points of Japanese tiled roofs.

The roof itself can be massive, but having the same make-up as other buildings can remove its sense of pressure. So from the very beginning an emphasis was placed on using authentic tiles. Authentic tile (plain rectangular tile and hollow semi-circular tile are used alternately) has a distinct grain, and when used as louvre, the space between tiles could be obscured.

Civic Centre facilities

The Civic Centre includes a branch of the city hall, a community centre and a library.

Each facility has its own complicated function, but such difference could be accommodated under the same roof. Like a wide wrapping cloth, it allows flexibility – the roof does not merely cover what is beneath it, but can work on its own as a solid or porous facet. Louvres used in this architecture have two roles – the one is with the tiles as a border, and the other is as a membrane of the building, by applying louvres this way, even ‘wall’ could gain a certain kind of expression.

Using local materials was central to the design. Architecture should not be cut off from the ground, like a building designed and transported from elsewhere that has no relation to the site.