Visitors' Centre in Koga, Japan

This simple timber skeleton-frame building forms a reception point and gateway to an extensive park. The complex comprises two long parallel strips covered by pitched roofs, which also extend over the edges of the central courtyard. In the middle, the courtyard is flanked by ancillary spaces inserted between the office and conference tracts. The long outer façades are articulated by wooden louvre units, which filter the daylight entering the building and heighten the sense of linearity. A water course leads from the car park through the central axis of the building, beneath the roof and on to a lake in the park. Rainwater from the roof is drained into this stream. Many aspects of the building are oriented to traditional Japanese architecture.