Gallery - Salon H

Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake

Gallery - Salon H

Niimori Jamison Architects

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Yudai Niimori, James Jamison

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Jun Yanagimuro

MANUFACTURERS
Asahi Glass Co., Nozawa Corporation

BUILDER
Moridai

PHOTOGRAPHS
Yosuke Ohtake

AREA
120 M²

YEAR
2022

LOCATION
Iga, Japan

CATEGORY
Gallery, Wellness Interiors

Iga was once known as a historical town but has come to resemble an industrial area with huge factories on the south side of the Meihan expressway, which bisects the city.

Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake
Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake

Gallery / Salon H is located in a residential area, developed in the 70s for local factory workers.

The initial brief was for a small hair salon.

After investigating the area, we discovered that rapid developments had driven up costs and created a shortage of gathering places in the city.

Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake
Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake

Additionally, a nearby high school with a craft department (rare in Mie Prefecture) had no place for exhibiting student works.

The site is a corner lot and the building was rotated out of rectilinear alignment to encourage pedestrians to use the site as a walkway and resting place (Construction phase 2).

Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake
Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake

Given the relatively large area of the site, it was decided that the project could perform a public function, providing a large tunnel-like room, which is used mainly as a public gallery space.

This is placed parallel to the site corner walkway, encouraging passers-by to cut the corner and pass through the gallery on their commute.

Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake
Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake

The gallery space widens towards the back of the site as does the salon space. In the gallery, this allows for a variety of different exhibits while casting an uneven, filtered light from the curved ceiling above.

In the salon, mirrors are off-parallel, creating a differing sense of depth throughout the space. Internally, the same cementitious lining is used as outside, but with a hand-polished seal, adding material depth to the indistinct quality of the interior.

Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake
Gallery - Salon H
© Yosuke Ohtake

We hope that these subtle shifts in conventional geometries and natural light and reflection can provide moments to ponder the places we inhabit.


Gallery - Salon H
Site Plan
Gallery - Salon H
Floor Plan


Gallery - Salon H
Sections
Gallery - Salon H
Detail
Gallery - Salon H
Axonometric Diagram