This is a renovation project for an old flower shop “Hanaju” located at the entrance of Yanaka Cemetery. Beginning of this project, the site was densely populated with some buildings due to repeated additions. After doing some historical research, we demolished several buildings, and we created a garden at the rear of the site to open up the site to the Yanaka community.
In preserving the building, we thought it would be possible to create a state in which the architecture would be preserved alive by accepting that it would continue to change in the future, rather than rewinding it back to a certain era. Each building has a different structure for each period, but the rhythm of the structures, which repeats like the beat of music, is considered to be the “rhythm” that pervades the building group, and the structures of each building are used to connect the space, and new structures are extended into the garden as a continuation of the existing structures.
The new frame is realized with steel joints machined with the utmost precision using modern technology, just as traditional wooden structures were built with the best of technology in the past.
The newly added elements are placed across the entire structure to create a connection between old and new, inside and outside, and between people and plants. With “rhythm” as the skeleton at the base of the space, we aimed to create a living architecture that continues to change, accepting changes in elements and activities.