Shibaura House Building

Kazuyo Sejima – Shibaura House Building, Nagano Japan, 2010-2011

Shibaura House, operated by Kohkoku Seihan Inc., is a unique and diverse seminar space located in Tokyo's business district, Minato-ku. It opened in July 2011 and has workshops and exhibitions organized by artists, architects, illustrators, designers.

Designed by kazuyo sejima, the intent of the mixed-use building is to provide a fun and exciting space for public and private use and also a community space for families in the area.
This building hosts a variety of cultural programs ranging from cooking and English classes to guest lectures from abroad. In addition to the scheduled activities, the 1st floor is always open to anyone who wants to use it for free. This double-height space has tables for working or reading and a coffee station, it functions as a park, at lunchtime it is full of people relaxing and having fun. Many lush green plants create a homely atmosphere.

The exterior of the building is transparent, each floor is defined by rooms of various shapes connected by curved staircases. Glass is used as a partition on the ground floor, creating unity between the interior space and the street outside. Above the ground floor are two floors of "lounge" spaces. Surrounded by a large terrace, these relaxation areas offer desk space for working or studying. The third floor, the "work" space, is used as a staff office. The top floor, called the "bird room", is a multipurpose office area. It also functions as a rental space for events and photo shoots.

Structure
The building consists of a series of concrete slabs of various shapes. The section of the building, with the different heights of the slabs, demonstrates its spatial complexity. Each level seems to overlap the next, causing a feeling of flow between the floors. The various levels are connected to each other by curved staircases.
The Shibaura House has a structure formed by ten load-bearing columns around the facades, resulting in a square footprint of 14×14 m divisible into nine equal squares. Thus the building can be interpreted as a response to the famous exercise in nine-square grid: this exercise was invented by the architect John Hejduk in the 50s and later used in architecture schools around the world. The question is: how to spatially divide a square, subdivided into nine smaller squares? Sejima offers seven elegant solutions: sinuous, yet simple.