This is a renovation project of a former liquor store located in a deserted shopping street in a port town. Its program includes restaurants and lodging. The site is in a local city about 2 hours by car from Tokyo. The existing building, which was built about 40 years ago, was a two-story post-modern wooden structure designed by an unknown architect.

What the client asked us to do was create a new design that would blend in with the shopping district. And the initial cost that they showed us was very severe. We had no choice but to use an existing building with a strange design. We decided to use most of that to keep costs down. And we took on the challenge of creating new designs using inexpensive and ubiquitous materials. Furthermore, we used mostly second-hand furniture and equipment. We searched for second-hand goods stores nearby, bought them, and repaired them.

It turned out to be a sustainable initiative. 90% of houses in Japan are made of wood, and most of these houses are rebuilt about 50 years after construction. This time, we decided to renovate and reuse it. This means that CO2 emissions can be reduced by 48%. (https://www.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/information/category/press/9553.html)

The most distinctive feature of the building's design is its rust facade. The existing exterior wall was made of cement board and was cracked. We covered the entire building with thin zinc boards to improve the waterproofness of the walls. Then we smeared rust onto the zinc board. The design is based on the many warehouses and other buildings in this port town that are covered with zinc boards.

Japan experienced rapid economic development after losing World War II. (high growth:1955-1975 stable:1976-1999)This building was built around that time (1984). In 1983, Arata Isozaki completed Tsukuba Center, a masterpiece of postmodern architecture, in the same prefecture. This was the time when the postmodern movement took the world by storm. This also had an impact on Japan's regional cities. After that, the country falls into a long recession.

This is a regional city in the Far East. We aimed for a design that was both old and new, making use of a small building that had been at the mercy of economic ups and downs.