Naruse-Ouka Elementary is a new variation of an elementary school hybrid with a community center and resilience hub, and was the winner of a design competition sponsored by Higashi-Matsushima town in 2017.
This project combines two elementary schools which were destroyed in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. It is the final elementary school in the area to be rebuilt after students have been learning in temporary structures for the past 11 years. The design enables the traditional disciplinary education of Japan while also challenging those norms and opening up opportunities for more creative and informal modes of learning.
In the event of a disaster, the building transforms into its secondary purpose as a hub for resilience. This functional and symbolic resilience built into the architecture will help restore a feeling of peace and security to a community that has been in a transitional mode for the past decade.
The building is also designed as a community hub, both for now and future anticipated population decline of the children attending the school. Currently it works both as a school and a community center, with a diagonal axis that separates functions and allows them to coexist without interrupting each other. The spatial adjacencies are planned in a way that allows community functions to gradually take over a part or all of the building over time as the population ages, turning into more of a community-oriented space for meetings, workshops, coworking and adult education.
Project Data
Title: HEP
Size: 6,977 sq. m.
Location: Miyagi, Japan
Use: Elementary School/Community Center/Resilience Hub
Client(s): Higashi Matsushima City
Status: Completed March 2021
Consultants
AOR / SMEP: Kume Sekkei Co., Ltd
Photography
© Kawasumi Kobayashi Kenji Photograph Office Co.,Ltd