Handa City Hall

The project theme is “A municipal government office to carry on the history and culture of Handa and invigorate the town.” Handa City has impressive, historic scenery where its brewing kura warehouses line up along the canal, so our design process followed the plan concept of positioning the office as a “modern kura.” The exterior is black-based to harmonize with the brewing kura, and the terra cotta louvers that block the western sun produce a shaded expression like the armored walls and Yamato-style walls seen on kura. We took care to select louvers, outer wall tiles, road paving bricks, tiles, and similar elements that were fired by local industries in the Chita Peninsula. The exterior space has a planted promenade called the “green canal” along the road, producing charm and amenity for the town. This plan paid careful attention to the scenery, climate, and barrier free access. The building has clear zoning and movement routes for each floor. The floor plans have cores at both ends and open floors with few columns. The public counters and working areas are laid out to be flexible and efficient. In readiness for Nankai megathrust earthquakes, which it is feared could occur in the future, we adopted the revolutionary connecting switch dampers, which we jointly developed, as the seismic isolation structure. We raised floor levels against flooding caused by tsunami or typhoon storm surges. With these and other measures, the building is ready to function as a disaster response center and emergency evacuation site. The public lobby on the first floor is a public communication space to convey the appeal of Handa. It also serves an educational purpose for disaster prevention awareness, because the seismic isolation system under the floor can be seen.