Studio Velocity’s ‘Sannouno’ office building with convivial curved roof – Photos by Studio Velocity.
Office + Architecture – Studio Velocity has created a two-floors wooden office with in the heart of the city of Okazaki in the Aichi prefecture in Japan. On the upper floor a small communal kitchen-veranda opens to a white curved roof for convivial gathering.
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The single curved roof appears to float amidst the residential buildings of the area. Its form results in a ceiling of varying heights for the level underneath. Growing from the ground floor and up through the openings on the roof, trees connect the two levels recreating the atmosphere of a park.
The roof is made from planks of cypress wood and employs a prestressed structure where the assumed maximum load was pulled in advance and fixed in place. The Japanese studio made use of flat timber parts in order to have a very thin and flat cross section. Such solution allowed to create a new curved surface that create a game of gravity and tension across the whole building.
“The tensile structure is made of wood instead of wire so that the interior space is not too governed by structural principles.” Explain at Studio Velocity. “This creates an interior space with the same wooden structure, except for the very flat bent beams and the proportions of pillars that don’t seem to support the roof.”
Wrapped in glass facades, the ground floor hosting the working spaces was conceived as a room filled by a forest of randomly disposed wooden columns. The vertical solution softly defines the space.
Even if located in a dense residential area, the ‘Sannouno’ office building and its roof space were designed to allow appropriate privacy while providing a calm and convivial space to gather.
All photos by Studio Velocity.
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