Coelacanth and Associates Inc.

It is a project of the new construction restoration of the Yamamoto Town Office which was greatly damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The site is located at the southeast end of Miyagi Prefecture, and was selected as a designer by a proposal in 2015.

Yamamoto-cho faces the Pacific Ocean and is divided into a lowland (east) with spread of paddy fields and a mountain side (west). Yamamoto Town Hall is located in the center of the town and is a place where public facilities such as Central public hall,the Historical Folklore Museum, Furusato folklore hall, etc. gather. About 30% of the town was flooded by the Great East Japan Earthquake. In addition to the problems of population decline and declining birthrate and aging population, the way of the government office building which plays a part of new town development as earthquake disaster reconstruction was asked. Therefore, we put the concept of "a town hall as a key to connecting the sea and the mountain and connecting people to people". We proposed a new government building where people would be close together, revive the town and create the future of the town together as a symbol of centripetal essential points and revival.

A two-story steel-framed building in the center of the site has a large cedar-lined rattan fence. The activity seen under the coffin will be the face of this place and welcome people. In response to natural conditions, such as cold winds and sunshine blowing down from the winter mountains, we aimed for a backless architecture that connects to the surrounding town in all directions.

The work space formed a working group with the staff members and repeated discussions on new workplaces. It is a one-room space that creates horizontal connections beyond departments and integrates with townspeople spaces. Light is taken from the high side lights on the north side, and the light reaches the first floor through four large through holes. A place like a bright indoor square. The discretely placed small cores create a variety of venues.

This project has been promoted through workshops and meetings with Professor Onoda (Tohoku University), staff, members of the Diet, and townspeople. Not only new government buildings, but also town development from now on, we repeated various discussions. What we all think together about the future of this town, which has suffered enormous damage, is the way it is as a new reconstruction agency.

We hope that this new government office will be a place where people and people can be connected and the landscape with the new home will be brought up together.