Tabata / Book Station

There were many writers living around Tabata station. Bunshi village, where creative activi-ties were developed through intense competition, is now a residential area on a highland spreading beyond a small south entrance. On the other hand, the north entrance is crowded with various residents in a space covered with a sloping roof, which resembles the Western terminal station. Because of the form type of the station, which stands above the platform and also due to the crossing of the Yamanote line and the Keihin Tohoku line, the scale of the roof is extremely huge.Though the spread of e-books is becoming intense, books as physical objects will never disappear. Rather in recent years, the experience of reading books has been given a new role by fusing bookstores with cafes and hotels. If the station becomes a landmark of the area and explores the idea of becoming a base for new exchanges based on the culture and experience of the book, how would Tabata station would look like? A library with book shelves is arranged symmetrically along the structure of the large roof. In accordance with the escalator position from the two platforms, a escalator connecting to the second floor is made, inviting people to enter a space full of bookshelves beneath a void that symbolizes the “Book Station”. The bookshelf from the catwalk on the side of the slope roof is expanded and spread towards the places such as bakery and souvenir shop. Ever- ything is managed with tags and everybody can lend and borrow the books from anywhere. The theme is that of the book that gathers changes whenever someone uses it. On the back of a tall bookshelf, in order to continue the culture of creating books, facilities such as writing class along with editorial and publishing facilities help users to engage in these interests.

Logistics

While highly efficient logistic systems have been established in recent years, the last mile is still carried by human hands. Now that the volume of packages is increasing due to the impact of COVID-19, it is necessary to rethink the working place of essential workers in logistics.
Our proposal is a transportation system for small packages that utilize the existing train network. By utilizing the existing infrastructure and involving local users in the first and last mile, the burden on Essential Workers will be distributed.
In logistics, where more and more packages are being shipped, utilizing existing stock will become more important than building huge warehouses.
We hope this video will give you an opportunity to look back on the current situation around the essential workers.

Partition

The history of the exterior partition-wall in the Japanese house seems to run in an opposite direction to the modern European one: from a succession of spatially differentiated thresholds to an overall technical ensemble. In the pre-modern period the building envelope was defined by its rich depth, which often embraced the entire house and its garden, forming a multi-layered and porous interaction between outside and inside. The enclosure of the post-war Japanese house, on the other hand, is reduced to a solid wall assembled out of mass-produced elements, leading to the collapse of the spatial multi-layeredness and its replacement by several functionally clearly delimited elements, namely the compact wall and its various openings, such as sash windows, air-conditioners, steam outlets, etc. In recent condominiums the wall has become defined by its increasing technological dependence, with a double, often contradictory goal: an ideal tightness of the enclosure and a series of highly controlled openings, gradually cutting off the inhabitants from their natural outside environment while creating a highly artificial one on the inside.

Arbed

Machiya in Daita / Kazunari SAKAMOTO