Architects: UID Architects
Location: Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan
Design Team: Keisuke Maeda
Year: 2011
Area: 104.16 sqm
Site Area: 130.24 sqm
Total Floor Area: 262.85 sqm
Photographs: Hiroshi Ueda
This old steel-frame building was built about 40 years ago. The building was build when client’s parents did business. Therefore, it had a large parking space on the first floor and was three story building with high floor height.
The site for this project has a narrow but deep frontage, which is typical in the center of town. The young couple and their children lived in the building, and they consulted me about the renovation when they intended to renew children’s room. I suggested a method to choose a renovation while I investigated the existing building without the drawing. The reason was that frame structure had high flexibility and I could secure existing totalfloor area by shifting demolition cost to earthquake strengthening as much as possible.
I considered the height of the building across the road, and I planned to do the renovation which spent money on the second floor and the third floor. Because the building was in the situation there were very few openings before a renovation, clients couldn’t let in light and air from outside to inside. And the building did not have the connection of the upper floor and the lower floor. Therefore I divided north and south space centering around terrace on the second floor.
I expected that this project became a catalyst to give the new value that was new group of buildings built 40 years without dismantling by securing a new place to stay by using an existing frame. And I thought that this project became a renovation to be able to spin the time from parents to their children because I could achieve the theme to see children’ happy face.
