Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Centre © Takeshi YAMAGISHI
Japan 2012

Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center

Tokyo
Retail/Cafe/Restaurant | Gallery/Museum/Cultural
Completed
2,159
8F / 1BF

In the corner premise of just 326㎡ across Kaminari-mon Gate, the building was required to accommodate plural programs such as tourist information center, conference room, multi-purpose hall and an exhibition space.

The center extends Asakusa’s lively neighborhood vertically and piles up roofs that wrap different activities underneath, creating a “new section” which had not existed in conventional layered architecture. Equipments are stored in the diagonally shaped spaces born between the roof and the floor, and by this treatment we could secure large air volume despite its just average height for high-and medium-rise buildings. Furthermore, the roofs not only divide the structure into 7 one-storied houses but also determine the role of each floor.

First and second floor has an atrium and in-door stairs, creating a sequence from which you can feel the slope of the two roofs. On 6th floor, taking advantage of the slanted roof, we were able to set up a terraced floor with which the entire room can function as a theater. As angles of the roofs inclined toward Kaminari-mon and the heights from the ground vary from floor to floor, each floor relates differently to the outside, giving a unique character to each space.

Team Teppei Fujiwara*, Masafumi Harigai*, Kiyoaki Takeda*, Erina Kuryu, Naoki Okayama, Masaru Shuku Cooperation Makino Structural Engineering Facility Kankyo Engineering Accumulation Futaba Quantity Surveyors Illumination Izumi Okayasu Lighting Design Award Good Design Award 2012 (Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center) Publication Casa BRUTUS 2024/06 vol.290 , Nikkei Architecture 2023/07/13 , GA JAPAN 169 , Shinkenchiku 2020/12 , GA JAPAN 163 , GA JAPAN 156 , Shinkenchiku 2014/11 別冊「ジャパン・アーキテクツ1945-2010」 , GA JAPAN 125 , Shinkenchiku 2013/10 別冊 PROPOSE TO THE FUTURE佐藤総合計画──コンペ・プロポーザルで時代に提案する , JA : The Japan Architect 2013/Winter 88, YEARBOOK 2012 , DETAIL 2012/10 , DETAIL 2012/07 , Nikkei Architecture 2012/06/10 No.977 , Casa BRUTUS 2012/06 Vol.147 , Shinkenchiku 2012/05 , GA JAPAN 116 , GA JAPAN 114 , GA JAPAN 103 , Nikkei Architecture 2009/12/28 , Nikkei Architecture 2009/05/25 No.900 , Nikkei Architecture 2009/05/25 No.900 , GA JAPAN 97 , Shinkenchiku 2009/02 Photography ©︎ Takeshi Yamagishi, ©︎ Shinkenchiku-Sha