SATOSHI OKADA
ARCHITECTS

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CHABOHIBA HALL

CHABOHIBA HALL is a well-established community center in a residential district on the west outskirts of Tokyo.

The hall hosts concerts, musicals, exhibitions and many other cultural activities for the local community. The space revolves around the monumental center called chabohiba: a cypress tree over a century old embodying the community's rich history. The auditorium houses one hundred people, and was constructed in collaboration with Nagata Acoustics, a Japanese company specializing in sound environments. Their work is critically-acclaimed by professional musicians in both their recording studios and TV-production spaces.

The auditorium and courtyard can be amalgamated as one space through rotating red-brown wooden panels, creating an unobstructed view of the symbolic tree in the center of the courtyard.

Several local artifacts excavated during construction were repurposed to honor the history of the site. A large, unglazed ceramic placed in a shallow water basin works as an outlet for the water feature with flowing water from the underground; stones of various shapes and sizes are reborn as elements of the tranquil rock garden framing the auditorium space.

LOCATION
Tokyo, JP
PROGRAM
Cultural venue
YEAR
2015
SIZE
612 sqm
STRUCTURE
RC + steel
LEAD ARCHITECT
Satoshi Okada
TEAM
Tatsuya Terada, Lisa Tomiyama
COLLABORATORS
STRUCTURAL DESIGN:
S3 Associates
SOUND DESIGN:
Nagata Acoustics (Nagata Acoustics: news)
CONTRACTOR:
Nihon Construction Co.
PHOTO CREDITS:
Satoshi Shigeta
AWARDS
International Architecture Award 2017 - The Chicago Athenaeum

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