U-Building

Simone Jeska

Description

In Ushiku, an hour away from Tokyo, a new urban district is being constructed. The new train station and the neighbouring U Building by Kazuyo Sejima form the starting points for the satellite town. Because of the uncertainty about the future surroundings and the internal use/occupancy for the new, speculative building, the determining theme is flexibility, which manifests itself both in the façades and in the ground plan.

Spatially and with respect to content, the six-storey building forms the connecting link between the station and the adjacent residential quarter. Restaurants and shops for day-to-day needs are accommodated on the ground floor. The succeeding two floors are taken up with waiting rooms for the bus station, a café bar, an information centre and a two-storey multifunctional hall with a gallery. A narrow walkway accesses this area and links the train station with the bus station and the residential quarter. The clarity of the simple, rectangular building mass is underwritten by the use of low-key materials and colours in the interior. The careful use of black and white surfaces accentuates the volumetric spatial composition. Office space destined to be rented is located on the upper three floors; it can be subdivided at will by means of partitions. Independently of the future ground plan design as a layout with one or two rows of offices, as open-plan office or group office, the building mass – only eleven metres deep – with its storey-height glass façades on the long sides supplies optimal natural light to the rooms inside.

A secondary, external structure of horizontal glass louvres and perforated metal sheets overlays the inner façade structure and gives the building a consistently unified appearance regardless of the internal occupancy. With the interplay of transparency, translucency and reflection, the horizontal glass louvres on the west side protect the extensively glazed interior rooms from the rays of the sun. Depending on the position of the louvres, the façade reflects either the sky or the activity on the square in front of the station. On the eastern side, the ‘curtain’ of perforated metal sheets, as a second façade layer, lets in only fractured light, while the interior of the building is only visible in silhouette. From inside, however, travellers and office workers have a clear view of the surroundings.

In the desolate surroundings of an area under development, the force and clarity of the new building set a high standard for the future building development in the adjoining space.