This building was planned as the clinic which supported a medical connection with the people from a local child to the elderly. A client is a doctor who has long been doing medical treatment supporting the area as a medical doctor in this place.In rebuilding the old clinic, the client request was to make it a building that would allow local people to have familiarity.
Project title: Hirano Clinic
Architects: Yoshiaki Tanaka/TSC Architects
Location: Aichi, Japan
Site area: 447.00 sqm
Built area: 223.18 sqm
Total floor area: 287.98 sqm
Design time：2013
Completion: 2014
Photographs: Masato Kawano(Nacasa ＆ Partners Inc.)
The site is located in the alley next to the main street of the city. The alley in front of the site is a school road in the neighborhood primary school, and we can see the appearance of children going to elementary school every morning.
When we saw the children passing happily past the site, we got a concept called a clinic to watch over the area. The construction site is not a big land and the front road is narrow, so building a building up to the limit will give we a feeling of pressure on the city.
In order to prevent the feeling of pressure from being exerted, we took into consideration the size of the necessary buildings, tilted the walls, and squeezed the top to give an overall sense of unity. The shape that supports the wall creates a sense of openness without giving a sense of pressure to the town, and also creates memories of the town. In addition, the diagonal adjoining roof supports a building and the connection with the town.
Considering that we are in front of the elementary school route, we thought about making a friendly look, and made the shape of the house-shaped window. The house-shaped window of various size penetrated by the wall is each house symbol and watch over local people warmly. The house-shaped windows remove negative feelings to a hospital and a border between the town and the hospital.
The house-shaped windows delivers impressive light that feels the warmth of wood at various places throughout the building. The peculiar facade is easy to be recognized from the main street, despite the alleyways next to the main street.
In the evening light emerging from the house-shaped windows highlights a peculiar facade. We used a materials of various trees such as larch plywood, teak, red cedar, OSB plywood, cork, lauan plywood etc in the interior, creating a warm and diverse expression space.
The outer wall of the shape which is oblique and supports each other is internally made into a space like a big tent made from wooden material and has a feeling of openness and warmth. Inside the space like a big tent, we made a room with different volume according to the application.
The waiting room is the biggest space and it is a well-through space where light enters even from the height of the second floor. Light entering from the house-shaped windows at the height of the second floor not only delivers directly to the waiting room, but indirectly diffusely reflects and delivers soft light.
The kids’ corner is built in the waiting room, making it an open space with a feeling of opening. Also, since the kids’ corner faces the outside, we try to be recognized by families with children.
The walls of the kids’ corner make it a child-friendly curved wall. The room next to the kids’ corner is made with the ceiling of the minimum height necessary so that the box enters into the building. The house-shaped windbreak room is shaped like it penetrated into the waiting room and makes it look like it looks like a house-shaped box has entered in a big tent. The space on the 2nd floor is shaped to be partially drawn in the waiting room.
The receptionist’s office room is placed under the protruding second floor part and emphasizes the BOX of the second floor part by using a material different from the second floor part. Depending on the volume of each room, various boxes are made in the inner space of a large tent, and furthermore by pasting different materials, it has become a diverse space composition.
When planning a clinic, I think that it is important to separate the flow line of the patient and the flow line of the staff. We arranged each room so that patient’s flow line and staff’s flow line do not overlap. The patient’s flow line is made to pass through the center of the building. Although the clinic is often made into an inorganic white space that is functional from its use, this clinic tried to produce the possibility of space of a new clinic by an organic and diverse space structure.
The appearance that children happily go through the building with this house-shaped window creates an attractive landscape in the city. We pray for becoming the place of the community of the people whom this building visits.
Yoshiaki Tanaka
1969 born in Hyogo , Japan
1993 graduated from Mie University
2008 Established TSC Architects
Award
2002 Hekinan Urban Design Culture Award
LITHUANIA−JAPAN ARCHITECTURE
EVENT 2011
AICA contest 2012
Special Prize
2013 SUMAInoSEKKEI LIVING DESIGN PHOTO CONTEST
Grand Prix
2014 IEDUKURI Award
2014 Mie Building Award
2014 INAUGURAL ARCHITECTURE ASIA AWARDS FOR EMERGING ARCHITECTS Finalist
ARCASIA2015 Shortlisted Projects
GOOD DESIGN Award 2016
sanwacompany Design Award 2016
AICA contest 2016 Special Prize
Modern Decoration International Media Award 2017 Annual Public Space Award
DFA Design for Asia Awards 2017 Bronze Award
A’Design Award & Competition 2019 Silver Award
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