FOR(N)EST
COMMUNITY CENTER FOR MINAMISANRIKU RESIDENTS
LOCATION
Minamisanriku, Japan
YEAR
May, 2013
DESIGNER
Beomki Lee
This project started with two key questions that how architecture can inherit a spirit from the site, and how architecture can provide a stage space to fulfill diverse needs of activities for the people.
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The stage for everyone in Minamisanriku should function for much wider range of activities on it, from economic activities to social and local activities. So, instead of designing a stage as a part of the ground, entire ground space is served as a stage for the people so that any activities can happen. Stages are generated by shifting the ground along the topo-lines on the site maintaining the original slant of the ground to respect the memory of the site.
One of the central questions that this project asks, is ‘What will the [micro]urban form of Minamisanriku look and feel like in 20 or 30 years?’ Given the context of the 3.11 disaster, the projected decline in population, the imbalance between natural and artificial systems, and the lack of (and therefore the need for) ‘public’ space, what kind of architecture could respond to this problem? Admittedly, these questions are difficult to grasp because there is no precedent solution; there is no building typology; and there is no existing form of civic / social space that meets these criteria.
