Day-Care Centre in Kamigyo

Situated in an old quarter of Kyoto with traditional houses, this new day-care centre for the elderly was inserted in a gap in the existing urban fabric. All one sees from the street is a narrow white volume. Behind the semi-transparent wood entrance gate is an open space that affords access to the various levels of the building. The ground floor establishes a spatial link with the old single-storey courtyard buildings that were traditionally used as tea houses and which now contain sanitary facilities. The main space on the ground floor opens on to the courtyard. From many points, one has views of the historical timber houses in the neighbourhood, framed by the fair-faced concrete walls of the new development. Traditional elements are also to be found in the new structure. On the roof, for example, there are two rooms for the tea ceremony. They are laid out with tatami mats and have loam-rendered walls. Bamboo matting and Japanese paper were used in the construction of suspended ceilings; and the entrance courtyard is laid out with large pebbles. Traditional forms of construction are contrasted with modern elements such as the three steel staircases. Although they all speak the same formal language, they are in different forms of construction and serve as a means of orientation within the building. The careful specification of materials allowed the creation of rooms with quite different spatial qualities.