SDC plus
Back to Projects list- Location
- Niigata, Japan
- Year
- 2021
This project to add a maintenance building next to the SDC/dental clinic in Tsubame city completed in 2018. "SDC Plus," a dental clinic with a café aims to give staff pride in their place of work and look forward to arriving each day.
In front of the building is a grassy area for running around and lounging. A wooden deck connects the building with the SDC main clinic, bookstore, and childcare facility, creating a leisurely environment.
The aim was to create a space that seamlessly combined the dental clinic, café, and inviting public space. As if the existing SDC main clinic, bookstore, childcare facility, forest, and neighborhood crepe shop were all integrated into one pleasant place for people to enjoy spending their time. A welcoming neutral space like a public park is intended, using only simple materials such as small timber wood, folded roof, and glass. Visitors there can experience a feeling of expansiveness in a humble space, as well as the integration between the outdoor area and surrounding facilities, allowing for further social enjoyment and interaction. “It is not the architectural design itself but the harmony of the scene's elements that can be appreciated
The slender frames composed of small-chamber wooden columns, braces, and beams are topped with a folded-plate roof that can support large spans, and the perimeter is surrounded with glass. All structural materials are painted light gray, daring to eliminate the "woodenness" of the structure. Even so, the materials' patterns, softness, and warmth still evoke a sense of ambiguity and lightness, like the pattern of the sky or a snowy landscape, throughout the entire space.
A disinfection room, x-ray room, restrooms, and café kitchen are arranged as colorful boxes, which softly demarcate the space. Since those colorful functional boxes are not part of the building structure, they can be flexibly and economically adapted to future changes such as the expansion of the café, the addition of medical units, and the renewal of uses.
This shows a very expansive and versatile way of construction as an architectural project, from a shed to a large warehouse to a building. It is exciting to see what kind of "Wow!" will be created by this environment and area "beyond being a dental clinic" in the future?