Birth Story

PLAT295 consists of a co-working space on the north side of the first floor, a shared office on the north side of the second floor, a rental space with kitchen on the south side of the first floor, and residential spaces on the south side of the second floor and the third, fourth and fifth floors.

I would like to explain a little about how this came about.

Originally, my grandparents' house was located on this land. In this town that was burnt to the ground after the war, my grandmother opened a small office on a two-frontage lot. She worked steadily and bought the adjoining land whenever it came up for sale, gradually expanding the house. Then a two-story wooden house and a five-story office and home were built, where my mother was born and raised. Time passed, and when I got married, I moved to a wooden house to live with my family. I built a wooden deck on the former two-story frontage and created a garden for my children to play in. I felt comfortable living downtown with the air of a quiet alley and the atmosphere of the street overflowing with sounds from factories and stores.

However, as the grandparents aged and the building deteriorated, a combination of various timing factors led to the decision to rebuild.

As we rebuilt, we thought about what kind of lifestyle we would like to build in the future. First, child-rearing. We want to enjoy raising our children as they grow up and grow older. I want them to grow up freely in the community. Then, work. I also run my own company, so I needed a home and office that would be easy to work in. Then, disaster prevention. Earthquakes and floods are inevitable when you live in this town. When I participated in the activities of the town council and festivals, I strongly felt that "Oh, we will help each other with my uncles in this neighborhood in case of a disaster" and "If something happens to my family, I will need the help of my neighbors. Connection and community in the community to save lives. It is easy to say in words, but I understood it in my daily life. Lastly, the downtown atmosphere. This town is now in a rush to rebuild. The best solution for profitability is to build condominiums and live on the top floor, but the best of downtown is still on the ground level facing the street. the first floor is where the bustle and people are. The ground floor is where the bustle and people live, and where workers come and go during the daytime. We wanted to reconstruct the building in a way that would preserve such a scene.

The answer we arrived at was to turn part of our home into a co-working space and shared kitchen. A private office is fine, but I want to make it more open to the community. It would be nice to have a shared office where I could work with a variety of people. I haven't heard much about home-based shared offices, but if you live close by, you can respond quickly to any problems that may arise, which should benefit the users. Let's make the residential space not only for ourselves, but also for office users to be able to live in close proximity to their work in a way that is typical of downtown. In the meeting rooms, let's build shared kitchens with equipment that is hard to find in home kitchens, and make them meeting spaces that can be used for various purposes, such as dinner parties and cooking classes.

The image grew and grew, and with the help of the design firm, it took shape. So that the dream plan does not end there, we would like to enhance the contents of the usage so that users can feel comfortable using the facility. In today's world, it is quite difficult to get together to work or eat together. Even so, we do not want to lose the richness of people spending time in the same space and enjoying time together. As working styles and ways of spending time in the community are changing, we would like to make this a place that can be a part of everyone's life.