天神町テラス / 鈴木理考建築都市事務所

A small wooden theater built for people with intellectual disabilities to share the joy of performing music, puppet shows, and other expressive activities with residents and passersby. It is located along a busy, pedestrian-only greenway. Generally, people with intellectual disabilities work in workshops or other settings. Still, Rhythm Studio (Social Welfare Corporation Hoshiza-kai, Kodaira City) aims to create a town and environment where people with disabilities can live comfortably, where they can share their joys and gain a sense of purpose through music performances, puppet shows, and other expressive activities with the community. The city is working to create a town and environment where people with disabilities can live comfortably and share joy and a sense of fulfillment with residents. In response to these activities, the owner and his wife, who are both philanthropists, provided the land and construction costs for the project, which was realized through repeated discussions among the owner, the social welfare corporation, and the designers to realize a new place for expressive activities “open to the community.

The project consists of a small theater (Village Green) on the first floor and a rental space on the second floor that can also be used as a residence. When not in use for performances by the “Kira Kira Puppet Troupe,” whose members are individuals with disabilities, the café is operated by the troupe’s members. They also support residents with salons, exhibitions, workshops, and other events. The activities of the troupe members, the staff working there, people passing by on the street, users of the second floor, and the changing nature of the greenway. The architectural intervention in the daily life of each of these people, which would otherwise flow in a disjointed and unrelated manner, was intended to serve as a “mediator” that would foster a relationship leading to richness and happiness for each of them.

​To this end, we created a one-room “open-air” space on two sides facing the street, composed of pillars, beams, and wooden louvers, which reach up to the large roof of the second floor. This space can be used as a pier for the overflow audience from the theater, a terrace for the café, or a part of the greenway, connecting the inside and outside. The wooden louvers in the middle of the height make this atrium a calm place to stay, and at the same time, they block the line of sight to the foot of the second floor, which is wide open to the greenway, while gently connecting the line of sight from the second floor to the activities downstairs. The eaves and the ceiling of the second floor are painted silver in unison, leading the shimmering shade of greenery inward.

​Looking from the theater toward the greenway through the atrium, the vertical elements (columns, fixture frames, greenway poles, trees, signs, etc.) and horizontal elements (hanging walls, continuous floor pavement, railings, retaining walls, greenway, etc.) intermingle with each other. The boundary between inside and outside fluctuates and flows out, creating the sensation that they are intermingled and connected as one. Rather than simply making the space transparent and bringing them closer together, we attempted to create a space in which the inside and outside are moderately connected while creating a sense of safe distance by placing an intermediary open space between them.

The site is elevated about 60 cm from the existing greenway. The first floor is parallel to the greenway, while the second floor’s rooms are placed on the greenway side, facing the large cherry tree, creating a gap between the upper and lower exterior walls. This displacement was intended to create a unique feature in the overall appearance of the building. The plan was to create a small, two-story wooden house with a total floor space of 30 tsubo so that it would neither appear as a “wooden house” nor a “welfare facility” but rather become a special setting for them, a place they could be proud of.

​​Surrounded by a quiet, low-rise residential area, the building is situated in a wind zone and boasts high sound insulation performance, thanks to its sound walls and double-layered sashes. （The building is also located in a quiet, first-class, low-rise residential area and is in a wind zone.) The two open sides on the greenway side have double sashes. The south and west sides of the site are adjacent to a residential area, so a sound insulation wall was built in the shape of an L. The kitchen, warehouse, and kitchenette are located along the wall. The zones for services such as kitchen, storage, and restrooms located along this wall also serve as buffer zones to insulate the sound from the theater. As a result, the theater was arranged like an open stage on a street corner.

​​Construction was completed at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but during the disaster, few people were able to gather together for activities. In the early summer of 2023, after the corona disaster had finally settled down, activities began in earnest. Now, people on the street stop, look in, talk to each other, enjoy the events, and relax in the café, and they are beginning to attract the attention, understanding, and support of many people. Above all, the people who work here are lively, interacting with others, exchanging words with passersby, offering drinks, giving performances, and engaging with the public, and they look forward to coming here. (Yoshitaka Suzuki)

Location: Kodaira-shi, Tokyo, Japan
Principal use: Theater, Lease space
Client: Atsuko Watanabe, Mitsuharu Watanabe
Completion: 2020

Architects: Yoshitaka Suzuki and Associates
Design team: Yoshitaka Suzuki
Structural design: Yamada Noriaki Structural Design Office
Construction: Murata Kensetsu

Photographs: Toshiyuki Yano, Yoshitaka Suzuki

Construction type: New building
Main structure: Wood
Building scale: 2 stories
Site area: 167.66m²
Building area: 64.78m²
Total floor area: 98.73m²
Design term: 2018.06-2019.04
Construction term: 2019.05-2020.08