sou fujimoto designs bowl-shaped plaza for community center in hida

sou fujimoto unveils second project for Hida

A walkable rooftop tops this community center designed by Sou Fujimoto Architects for the Japanese city of Hida. Tentatively named ‘Hida Furukawa Station Eastern Development’, the project will join Hida Takayama University as part of a larger scheme to invigorate and enhance the small city.

Planned for a 21,300 sqm site to the north east of Hida Furukawa Station, the new community center is envisioned as ‘a local collaborative base’ to enrich the life of residents by providing diverse leisure and cultural facilities. The project also aims to improve circulation through Hida and attract more tourists to the area.

images © Sou Fujimoto Architects

‘A stage where activities blend’

The community center will include a university research base, student accommodation, an all-weather playing field, and various commercial outlets. These diverse functions will be housed over two floor levels underneath the large rooftop plaza that takes shape as a bowl, or ‘utsuwa’ in Japanese. The valley-like ‘Utsuwa plaza’ echos the mountainous landscape of Hida. Entered from any direction, it will provide a hub for passersby and become a place where people can gather. Pop-up functions and activities will also enliven the rooftop space.

In addition to its distinctive shape, the roof is also characterized by random openings, similar to Sou Fujimoto’s recently completed ‘House of Music’ in Budapest. At the edge of the building, the structure curves up to connect to the surrounding city.

The architects say, ‘Tradition and future, diversity and convergence, individual and group, nature and artifice, exposure and protection, will all come together. The Utsuwa is an intimate room, but also a vast mound framing the sky in its changing seasons, with a terrain continuing to the Hida mountains. It will be a stage where activities blend, like instruments in an orchestra of ideas.’

the rooftop plaza is a place where people can gather