Kyushu Japan Railway Company Kami-Kumamoto Station

This project was a reconstruction plan for an existing station building, associated with elevation of a conventional train line in a continuous grade separation project by Kumamoto Prefecture. We designed a station building that would be simple, but with presence, with a windbreak screen of wooden louvers standing in the station plaza. For passengers’ convenience, we devised a rational floor plan that arranged the ticket offices, ticket gates, and elevator/escalator equipment in a continuous row along the concourse on the station plaza side. In the interior, we paid particular attention to the material textures of the places that travelers see, walk on, and touch, such as the wood-paneled platform, the wood-louvered ceiling, and the brick-tiled walls, to put together a high-grade space. Kumamoto is a forestry metropolis, and we made extensive use of timber grown in this prefecture, so this station building has the fragrance of timber.