"Jo Nagasaka-led Schemata Architects completes the head office for Uchida Shōten, a hardware manufacturer with a 160-year history in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The team roots the two-story wooden structure in the spatial logic of the historic town that surrounds it. The site sits along the former Tōkaidō road, once Fujisawa-juku, the sixth post town of the Edo period, where narrow, elongated plots shape a distinctive townhouse culture that still structures the area today."
"The building draws from the machiya model, an architectural style of traditional Japanese wooden townhouses, characterized by their narrow, deep layouts, wooden latticework, and integration of living and working spaces. For a manufacturer whose business revolves around building components, the project introduces a disruption to routine, while offering Fujisawa a small but active space for cultural circulation along the old Tōkaidō road."
Schemata Architects delivered a two-story wooden head office for Uchida Shōten that references Fujisawa’s historic machiya townhouse logic and the former Tōkaidō road. The design responds to narrow, elongated plots and the traditional mix of retail, living, and storage spaces by organizing program within a restrained, framed box. Budget constraints and conceptual clarity guided the choice of repetitive frames to ensure flexibility and longevity. North-facing awning windows open to the street to admit light, movement, and social presence. The project provides functional production and storage while reinvigorating street-level cultural circulation.
Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine
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