BIG-TREE (Yamagata Citizens’ Hall Development Project)

In addition to promoting culture and the arts, Yamagata City is working to improve the flow of movement in its city center and create a lively atmosphere with the development of a new civic hall through public-private partnerships. The name “BIG-TREE” embodies the vision of an architectural and organizational structure where citizen activity sprouts and flourishes like branches on a great tree rooted in Yamagata’s nature, history, and culture. The project seeks to establish an organic system where the “roots,” laid through design and construction, nurture the “trunk” of operations, from which a range of daily activities grow as “branches.” The facility will incorporate essential community functions such as commerce, healthcare, and childcare, while also fostering collaboration with culture and the arts. The first floor features a space, open on three sides, that promotes loose interaction among citizens. The three-dimensional FLOW structure, which extends to the rooftop, enables comfortable circulation with hubs of activity on each floor. The second floor will house a documentary film library, with plans to collaborate with a film festival to involve the whole city in festivities.