知的障がいを持つ人々が、音楽や人形劇などの表現活動を行い、地域の人々や道行く人々と共にその喜びを分ちあうために建てられた、小さな木造の劇場。人通りの多い、歩行者専用の緑道沿いにある。一般的には、知的障がいを持つ人々は作業所で作業をすることが多いが、リズム工房（社会福祉法人星座会、小平市）は、そういった作業だけではなく音楽や人形劇などの表現活動の公演を通じて、地域の人々と共に喜びを分ち合い、生きがいを得られるような、障がい者が暮らしやすいまちや環境づくりを目指して活動をしている。その活動に対し、篤志家の施主夫妻から土地と建設費が出資提供され、新たな「地域に開かれた」表現活動の場所を実現するため、施主・社会福祉法人・設計者で打合せを重ねて実現に至った。

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1階の小劇場（ビレッジグリーン）と、居住も可能な2階の賃貸スペースからなる。障がいを持つ人々をメンバーとする「キラキラ人形劇団」による公演時以外は、彼ら劇団員自身によってカフェが営まれている。また彼らがサポートスタッフとなって、地域の人たちのサロンや展示会、ワークショップなども行われる。劇団員たちの活動、そこで働くスタッフ、道行く人々、2階の利用者、緑道の自然の移ろい。そのままではバラバラで無関係に流れていくそれぞれの日常を、建築が介在することによって、豊かさやそれぞれの幸福につながるような関係を生みだす、「媒介者」のような建築にしたいと考えた。

 

そこで、2階の大屋根まで達する、柱や梁と木製ルーバーで構成された1間分の「吹き放ち」の空間を、通りに面した2面につくった。そこは劇場から溢れた観客の桟敷になったり、カフェのテラス席になったり、緑道の一部になったりと、内外をつなぐ場所である。そして、その高さの中間にある木製ルーバーは、この吹き放ちを落ち着いた居場所にし、同時に、緑道に大きく開いた2階の足元へ侵入する視線を遮ぎるも、2階からの視線を階下の活動へと緩やかにつなぐ。軒天も2階天井も、一体的にシルバー塗装し、ゆらめく緑陰を内側へ導く。

 

劇場から吹き放ちを通して緑道のほうを見ると、その垂直の要素（柱や建具枠、緑道の電柱、樹木、標識など）と、水平の要素（垂れ壁や、連続する床の舗装、手摺、擁壁、緑道など）が、相互に混じりあう。内外の境界はゆらぎ、流れ出し、ない交ぜとなって一体に繋がっていくような感覚をおぼえる。単純に透明にして近づけるのではなく、吹き放ちという媒介空間を間に置くことによって、安心できる距離感をつくりながらも、内外がほどよく繋がりあうような空間をつくることを試みている。

 

敷地は、緑道から既存で60㎝程度、高くなっている。風致地区の規定によって敷地の四周に指定の外壁後退距離をとり、その中で建築面積一杯に屋根を広げ、敷地形状をなぞったような不等角の四角形となった。1階は緑道に平行であるのに対し、2階は居室を緑道側に配置して桜の大樹に正対しており、上下の外壁面にはズレが生じている。そのズレによって、全体の外観に固有の特徴を生み出そうとした。延床30坪という小さな木造の2階建住宅の規模で、「木造住宅」でも「福祉施設」でもないように立ち現われ、彼らにとって特別な舞台になり、誇りの持てるような場所となれば、と計画した。

 

周囲は閑静な第一種低層住専で、かつ風致地区になっており、遮音壁や二重のサッシによって高い遮音性能も実現している。（リハビリ用の、魂の解放のような大音量の打楽器演奏時は、閉め切る。）緑道側の開けた2方は、二重サッシとした。敷地の南側と西側は住宅地と隣接するため、L字形に遮音壁を設けた。そこに沿って配置したキッチン、倉庫、トイレ等のサービスのゾーンは、劇場からの音響を遮音するバッファーゾーンを兼ねている。結果として劇場は、街角に開いた舞台のような配置となった。

 

コロナ禍の始まりに竣工したが、禍中は、集って行う活動がほとんど出来なかった。コロナ禍がようやく落ち着いた2023年初夏、本格的に活動が始まった。今では、道行く人々が足を止め、覗き込み、話しかけ、催しを楽しんだり、カフェでくつろいだりしており、多くの人々の注目や理解・支援を得始めている。何より、ここで活動する彼ら彼女たちが、道行く人々と言葉を交わし、飲み物を提供し、公演を行い、人々と関わりながら生き生きと活動しており、ここに通うのを楽しみにしている。そのことが単純に嬉しい。

 

​2023年度グッドデザイン賞　撮影：矢野紀行

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Tenjincho Terrace

A small wooden theater built for people with intellectual disabilities to share the joy of performing music, puppet shows, and other expressive activities with local residents and passersby. It is located along a busy, pedestrian-only greenway. Generally, people with intellectual disabilities work in workshops, but Rhythm Studio (Social Welfare Corporation Hoshiza-kai, Kodaira City) aims to create a town and environment where people with disabilities can live comfortably, where they can share their joys and gain a sense of purpose through performances of music, puppet shows, and other expressive activities with people in the community. The city is working to create a town and environment where people with disabilities can live comfortably and share joy and a sense of fulfillment together with local residents. In response to these activities, the owner and his wife, who are both philanthropists, provided the land and construction costs for the project, which was realized through repeated discussions among the owner, the social welfare corporation, and the designers in order to realize a new place for expressive activities “open to the community.

 

The project consists of a small theater (Village Green) on the first floor and a rental space on the second floor that can also be used as a residence. When not in use for performances by the “Kira Kira Puppet Troupe,” whose members are people with disabilities, the members themselves run the café. They also support local residents with salons, exhibitions, workshops, and other events. The activities of the troupe members, the staff working there, people passing by on the street, users of the second floor, and the changing nature of the greenway. The architectural intervention in the daily life of each of these people, which would otherwise flow in a disjointed and unrelated manner, was intended to be a “mediator” that would create a relationship that would lead to richness and happiness for each of them.

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To this end, we created a one-room “open-air” space on two sides facing the street, composed of pillars, beams, and wooden louvers, which reaches up to the large roof of the second floor. This space can be used as a pier for the overflow audience from the theater, a terrace for the café, or a part of the greenway, connecting the inside and outside. The wooden louvers in the middle of the height make this atrium a calm place to stay, and at the same time, they block the line of sight to the foot of the second floor, which is wide open to the greenway, while gently connecting the line of sight from the second floor to the activities downstairs. The eaves and the ceiling of the second floor are painted silver in unison, leading the shimmering shade of greenery inward.

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Looking from the theater toward the greenway through the atrium, the vertical elements (columns, fixture frames, greenway poles, trees, signs, etc.) and horizontal elements (hanging walls, continuous floor pavement, railings, retaining walls, greenway, etc.) intermingle with each other. The boundary between inside and outside fluctuates and flows out, creating the sensation that they are intermingled and connected as one. Rather than simply making the space transparent and bringing them closer together, we attempted to create a space in which the inside and outside are moderately connected while creating a sense of safe distance by placing an intermediary space of open space between them.

 

The site is elevated about 60 cm from the existing greenway. The first floor is parallel to the greenway, while the second floor's rooms are placed on the greenway side, facing the large cherry tree, creating a gap between the upper and lower exterior walls. This displacement was intended to create a unique feature in the overall appearance of the building. The plan was to create a small two-story wooden house with a total floor space of 30 tsubo, so that it would appear as neither a “wooden house” nor a “welfare facility” and become a special setting for them, a place they could be proud of.

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Surrounded by a quiet low-rise residential area, the building is located in a wind zone and has high sound insulation performance thanks to sound walls and double-layered sashes. （The building is also located in a quiet first-class low-rise residential area, and is in a wind zone.) The two open sides on the greenway side have double sashes. The south and west sides of the site are adjacent to a residential area, so a sound insulation wall was built in the shape of an L. The kitchen, warehouse, and kitchenette are located along the wall. The zones for services such as kitchen, storage, and restrooms located along this wall also serve as buffer zones to insulate the sound from the theater. As a result, the theater was arranged like an open stage on a street corner.

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Construction was completed at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but during the disaster, few people were able to gather together for activities. In the early summer of 2023, after the corona disaster had finally settled down, activities began in earnest. Now, people on the street stop, look in, talk to each other, enjoy the events, and relax in the café, and they are beginning to attract the attention, understanding, and support of many people. Above all, the people who work here are lively, interacting with people, exchanging words with passersby, offering drinks, giving performances, and engaging with people, and they look forward to coming here.

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2023 GOOD DESIGN AWARD​   Photographed by Toshiyuki Yano

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Translated with DeepL.com