Two closed school buildings from Nara and Kyoto prefectures
were relocated and turned into three pavilion buildings.
The pavilions are made from the old buildings at Oritate Middle School in Totsukawa, Nara and the Nakade Branch of Hosomi Elementary School in Fukuchiyama, Kyoto.
All three were historic wooden school buildings built in the mid-20th century.
By mixing well preserved and drastically altered school building parts, the aim goes beyond enjoying the nostalgia in the relocated structures, but to also carefully deconstruct the time etched into the architecture, and then transform that into a new building.
The two school buildings were beautiful structures that hold memories which people shared going back to the mid-20th century.
Even though it was my first time to visit, I felt a sense of nostalgia, as if it were a familiar place.
I also keenly felt it was a cherished place.
I would like to breathe new life into the pavilion with these old school buildings.
The parts of the carefully dismantled school buildings were transported to the venue and reassembled as a pavilion.
The entrance building and Dialogue Theater building make use of wooden frameworks as well as tiled roofing and wooden walls as much as possible, resulting in structures that blend old wood and tiles with new concrete and glass.
The time and memories etched into the building, such as the graffiti left by students on pillars and beams, have been cherished and given new life.
Comment
Architectural Design
SUO Takayuki（SUO Co., Ltd.）
This building, old yet new, stands on Yumeshima, a manmade island. Changes in society made its predecessors obsolete and they were slated for demolition. Perhaps they would have been buried under this site. I saw meaning in giving these old buildings a new role as a pavilion on Yumeshima. Now, after their years of careful use and maintenance, the buildings will be carefully dismantled, each part confirmed, and then each component will be assembled into a new form as a pavilion. This building, which could only be created through this painstaking process, may seem peculiar to those of us who are accustomed to focusing on efficiency, but I hope that this seemingly old and battered structure will come alive at the Expo, where people from across the globe will gather. It encapsulates the hope that our generation will be the one that finds beauty in such architecture and approaches.