Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2016

rib­­bon-cha­­pel / Hiro­shi Naka­mu­ra & NAP

Pro­get­ti­sta	Hiro­shi Nakamura
Loca­tion	Hiro­shi­ma, Japan
Desi­gn Team	Hiro­shi Naka­mu­ra & NAP: Hiro­shi Naka­mu­ra, Yasu­hi­ro Ota­ni, Taka­hi­ro Shi­ma­da*, Kei­su­ke Minato* *: for­mer staff
Anno	2014
Cre­di­ti Fotografici	[PHO­TO 1 EXTER­NAL] Viewing the distant city­sca­pe of Ono­mi­chi. By sub­tly pea­king out from the den­se trees, it beco­mes a sym­bol that har­mo­ni­zes with the sur­roun­ding environment. [PHO­TO 2 EXTER­NAL] By joi­ning two spi­ral stair­ways that sup­port one ano­ther, we crea­ted a free-sta­n­­ding structure. [PHO­TO 3 EXTER­NAL] The building’s exte­rior is fini­shed in whi­­te-pai­n­­ted upright wood panels, so as to dee­pen its beau­ty as time pas­ses. Each slim panel with 80mm width can be plia­ble enou­gh to be applied to its cur­ving wall. [PHO­TO 4 EXTER­NAL] The bri­de and groom climb sepa­ra­te stair­ways to meet at the top, ask for heaven’s per­mis­sion to join as one, and decla­re their mar­ria­ge. The sim­ple buil­ding is com­po­sed only of paths. [PHO­TO 5 EXTER­NAL] It stands as a lighthou­se for ships that pass by. [PHO­TO 1 INTER­NAL] Solemn sound echoes throu­gh the atrium that extends towards the sky. [PHO­TO 2 INTER­NAL] The two clim­bing the sepa­ra­te spi­rals pass each other seve­ral times. [PHO­TO 3 INTER­NAL] Near the top, the rib­bon higher than the sur­roun­ding trees, and the superb city­sca­pe of Ono­mich and vast view of Seto Inland Sea begin to appear. [PHO­TO 4 INTER­NAL] Sin­ce the cei­ling sur­fa­ce is three-dime­n­­sio­­nal cur­va­tu­re, tita­nium zinc alloy was employed for its soft­ness and high resi­stan­ce again­st salt dama­ge. Sce­ne­ries from the moun­tain to sea appear throu­gh the branches. [PHO­TO 5 INTER­NAL] Some layers of spi­rals over­lap in the sou­th­we­st side to miti­ga­te strong sun­light pene­tra­tion. The spi­rals can be seen in pure sha­pe from the inte­rior due to the use of under­floor air con­di­tio­ning capi­ta­li­zing on the foun­da­tion pit.

Foto ester­ni:

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

Rib­bon Chapel 

The cha­pel in Ono­mi­chi, Hiro­shi­ma, Japan, is mid­way on a hill enjoy­ing a beau­ti­ful pano­ra­mic view of the Seto Inland Sea. It is main­ly used for wed­dings by Pastors and wide­ly opens up to the public, con­tri­bu­ting to dis­se­mi­na­tion of the Chri­stian faith.
A sin­gle spi­ral is very unsta­ble. Howe­ver, by ent­wi­ning two spi­ral stair­ways, we rea­li­zed a free-sta­n­­ding buil­ding of unpre­ce­den­ted com­po­si­tion and archi­tec­tu­ral­ly embo­died the act of mar­ria­ge in a pure form.

The beau­ti­ful sce­ne­ries of sur­roun­ding islands could not be seen due to the abun­dant trees, but we did not want to cut down the trees to open up the views. We thought if the cha­pel stood as an inde­pen­dent object, then it would rather ruin the view. Instead we desi­gned a cha­pel with viewing plat­form by just thin­ning out the sur­roun­ding trees, so that the cha­pel would stand as it peaks out from the mid­way of the mountain. 

Thou­gh the insta­bi­li­ty of the spi­ral makes it sway side to side and sha­ke in the ver­ti­cal direc­tion, we crea­ted a free-sta­n­­ding struc­tu­re by joi­ning two spi­ral stair­ways that sup­port one ano­ther. Just as two lives go throu­gh twists and turns befo­re uni­ting as one, the two spi­rals seam­les­sly con­nect at their 15.26m sum­mit to form a sin­gle rib­bon. Insi­de, the vir­gin road extends towards the pre-exi­­sting sym­bol tree, and 80 sea­ts are posi­tio­ned with views of the ocean throu­gh the trees and the altar that is wat­ched over by them.

In the pro­cess of wal­king the aisle, eve­ry step awa­kens memo­ries and emo­tions. The sim­ple buil­ding is com­po­sed only of paths, along which sce­ne­ries of ocean, moun­tains, sky, and distant islands suc­ces­si­ve­ly appear and disap­pear. Althou­gh it is only a small buil­ding, we endea­vo­red to accom­mo­da­te the emo­tions of the bri­de and groom and the thoughts of the cele­bran­ts by exten­ding the aisle to a total length of 160m and expan­ding the ran­ge of experiences.

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