Location: Sado City, Niigata Prefecture

Use: factory

Total floor area: 1012.2㎡

Structure: wooden structure with partial RC structure 

Year: 2005

The factory was built on a flat piece of land in a fan-shaped area about 800 meters into the mountains from the coastline in the former Hatano Town in the southeastern part of Sado City, Niigata Prefecture. The site is surrounded by rice fields with a low mountain in the background and an elementary school, creating a peaceful, green countryside. As part of Niigata Prefecture's regional development policy, the former Hatano Town had already constructed a water diversion facility in a fishing port to take deep seawater from the continental shelf offshore and separate it into salt, minerals, and water. This building is a plant for pumping and bottling the mineralized water from there. Considering the influence of the sea breeze, the main building of the factory was constructed of wood with large section modified timbers. The factory is located on an elementary school route, so we wanted to make the interior of the factory as open as possible to the surrounding area, and to create a comfortable space for work and an open space for familiarity in a world where buildings that accelerate consumption have been widely developed. I wanted to create a building that is comfortable to work in, open and friendly, and in harmony with the surrounding landscape. Specifically, a sunken structural arch was brought in from the single-story concrete structure behind the building, and the other end was supported by a louvered colonnade in front of the building. The louvers are oriented at 45 degrees to let in the morning sun from the east and prevent the sun from shining in the west. From the street, this horizontally long façade serves as a screen through which the interior of the factory can be viewed as it changes with the movement of the sun, and from the interior, it is a large window through which one can breathe in the changes of light as the sun progresses, and quietly talk with the surrounding countryside.