Tenjintyo Terrace

Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano

TENJINTYO TERRACE

Yoshitaka Suzuki and Associates

CLIENTS
Atsuko Watanabe, Mitsuharu Watanabe

PHOTOGRAPHS
Toshiyuki Yano

AREA
98 m²

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Yoshitaka Suzuki

CONSTRUCTION
MURATA Kensetsu, Masakazu Arahata, Chiharu Nisoichi

COLLABORATORS
YSD, Yamaha Corporation

MANUFACTURERS
Vectorworks, YKK AP, IOC Flooring, Inoue Syoji, Taiheiyo Precast Concrete, Washin Chemical Industry

YEAR
2020

CATEGORY
Mixed Use Architecture, Houses

LOCATION
Japan

Text description provided by architect.

This is a small wooden building complex consisting of a stage for the expression of people with intellectual disabilities on the first floor and a rental house on the second floor.

Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano

The site is located on a corner lot, facing a pedestrian-only greenway to the north and a quiet street to the east. The south and west sides of the site are in a“quiet low-rise residential area”.

The first floor is a stage for people with intellectual disabilities to perform music and puppet shows, as well as a cafe and rental space staffed by the disabled themselves.

Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano

It is wide open to the daily lives of people passing by on the greenway.

(At the same time, sufficient sound insulation is ensured through the use of double sashes, for example, when necessary.) The second floor is a rental house, also open to the greenway and can be used as an office by opening up the fittings between the rooms.

We thought about how the activities of people with intellectual disabilities, the audience, the people who come and go, the residents, the changing of the seasons, and so on, relate best to each other.

Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano

In accordance with local legal regulations, we created a setback distance of 1.5m on all four sides, and a setback space of 1.8m more under the roof on the greenway and street side.

The area created by the setback became a device to face and connect with the greenway and the road.

It is a place where the space is unwound, swinging between inside and outside, becoming a pier for the overflowing audience, a café terrace, and part of the greenway.

Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano

In the middle of the first floor, a louver (partly a wisteria trellis) has been added to provide a calm place to stay underneath.

The louvers also protect the residents from eyes on the passerby through the large windows on the second floor, which are open to the greenery, and gently connect the residents' eyes to the activities of people with intellectual disabilities under the louvers.

The eaves of the building are painted silver to bring the reflected greenery inside.

Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano

In other words, the interior space is always in a relationship with the "other side", like "stage", and does not complete in isolation.

Looking at the greenway from the inside on the first floor, vertical elements such as columns, fittings frames, utility poles, trees, and signs, and horizontal elements such as hanging walls, floor paving, railings, retaining walls, and the greenway, are intermingled with each other, blurring the boundaries between internal and external, giving us a sense of place, but leading to a greenway.

Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano

The exterior wall of the first floor is parallel to the greenway, while the exterior wall of the second floor is directly opposite to a large tree, creating a gap between the upper and lower walls.

By doing so, we hoped that this architecture would appear neither as a residence nor a welfare facility in the daily lives of people and people with intellectual disabilities, and that it would become a special place while blending in.

Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano


Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano
Tenjintyo Terrace
© Toshiyuki Yano


Tenjintyo Terrace
Plan - First floor
Tenjintyo Terrace
Plan - Second floor


Tenjintyo Terrace
Section of a relationship with the greenway
Tenjintyo Terrace
Sketch - View drawing from the inside