Gallery

Description

This project is a annex building of the Fuji Kindergarten, with mixed functions; it is the space were English language classrooms are held and it’s also the waiting station for the school bus. 50 percent of the building is exposed to the external environment. The building’s enclosure is blurred and the footprint of the building does not present a boundary between the internal and the external. A twisted zelkova tree dictates the existence of the place. The canopy and the trunk of the tree have been acting as a shelter for children for a long time. The architecture is nothing more than a modest addition to an already mature space. The zelkova tree was once
blown down by a typhoon and not expected to survive. Yet the tree survived, grew up tall, and became too wide even for two adults to hug around the trunk after nearly 50 years. The inclination of the twisted trunk is just right for children to enjoy climbing up. The bark has been polished up smoothly by the small hands of children throughout the years of its history. There used to be a tree house with ducks living under the floor. The shadow of the tree used be an outdoor classroom.

While the main building of the Fuji Kindergarten is an oval without a center, the annex is centripetal. The image has derived from the story of Buddha giving lecture under the Bodhi tree, yet it did not happen exactly as planned. Children and teacher are taking very narrow corner and space between floor plates. Due to the small height of some of the ceilings, with less than 1 meter, the structure needed to be smaller than the space between floor levels. The floor is composed by 9 mm steel plates with ribs and most of the columns are less than 30mm x 30mm, in a almost furniture like scale. With this structural solution, each elements of the structure become smaller than the branches of the tree. The ribs under the floor resemble the veins of leaves, yet not mimicking its pattern. The building has seven floor levels within a total of 5 meter building height. The space between floor plates varies between 600mm to 1500mm, heights not intended for grownups.

Safety is a big issue in this annex. Some of the ceilings are lower than children’s height, and originally there was no guard where the different levels meet. After experimental trials with the architect’s daughter handrail ropes and a safety net were installed.

Biography

Takaharu Tezuka was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1964. In 1987 he got a Bachelor degree in Architecture at the Musashi Institute of Technology; in 1990 he attained the Master degree at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. From 1990 to 1994 he worked at Richard Rogers Partnership Ltd., and in 1994 established his own studio, Tezuka Architects. In 2005 and 2006 Takaharu was visiting Professor at the Salzburg Summer Academy and in 2006 at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2009 he became Professor at the Tokyo City University.

Yui Tezuka was born in Kanagawa, Japan, in 1969. In 1992 she got a Bachelor degree in Architecture at the Musashi Institute of Technology, and in 1994 established her own studio, Tezuka Architects. In 2006, Yui was visiting Professor at the Salzburg Summer Academy and at the University of California, Berkeley.