Description of the project by Jorge Almazán Architects
This project is a conversion of a kura, a traditional Japanese warehouse, into a community space. In cooperation with a local community group, we restored and renovated this building with the broader goal of contributing to the revitalization of the area.
Located in Ichikawamisatocho, a Japanese provincial town in Yamanashi prefecture, the warehouse is part of a former sake brewery compound. Due to its state of decay, the owner decided to partly demolish it, leaving only a portion of the warehouse. The resulting urban space after the demolition left an unstructured urban void without character. We proposed to re-use the remaining warehouse and the surrounding space, conceiving the whole as a public space open for the local community.
As a result of several months of brainstorming sessions with the local community group, we proposed to introduce new public uses into the sake warehouse, to convert it into a multi-purpose community space for exhibitions, meetings, conferences, and performances. Our goal was not only preserving the old warehouse, but giving it a new life while keeping its historical and architectural character. For this purpose, in our design we use a Japanese traditional repertoire of materials and elements, but giving them new forms and uses.
Our intervention in the warehouse was focused on providing character and use to the main urban void left on the western side of the site. We conceived this void as a small plaza with a stage emerging from the warehouse.The stage is two-sided, connecting the interior and the exterior of the warehouse, enabling the celebration of indoor and outdoor events.
As for the surrounding space, we designed a new public circulation connecting the main shopping street to the back alley, offering the public the opportunity to enjoy the garden surrounding the warehouse. The new public circulation is facilitated by another traditional element, often found in Japanese gardens: stepping stones. This time, however, the stones are artificial: custom-made in poured concrete.
Montse Zamorano Gañán (Madrid, 1985) is an architect specialized in architecture photography, always looking to integrate new strategies, tools and methods of marketing and branding for the outreach and support to architecture and design.
She has photographed for architects such as Foster and Partners, Álvaro Siza or Héctor Fernández Elorza and published in architecture media such as Metalocus, TASCHEN, Casabella, Architectural Record, Arquitectura Viva or Detail. Her visual work has been finalist and selected in international awards and festivals and her pictures displayed in exhibitions in Madrid, Valencia, Milan and Shanghai. She greatly enjoys teaching and has lectured and conducted workshops in Harvard-GSD, Keio, Pratt, NJIT and ETSAM.
She studied architecture at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and IIT Chicago, and she holds a Master in Branding at SVA and a Master in Integrated Marketing from NYU as a Fulbright and LaCaixa Scholar.
