Gifu Civic Cultural Center

Yang Yu Bing

Gifu Civic Center faces several challenges as mentioned by our professor. For my project I wish to tackle the following: the separation of the civic center from the street, the inconvenience to passersby and underutilization. The site has several advantages that I wish to base my interventions on. The physical proximity to the Kogane Park and the Kogane Shrine is one, since they are popular sites for visit. The Kogane Shrine attracts more than 10,000 visitors during the New Years, which is an element to consider. At the same time, the site is close to Gifu’s most busy road, the Kinkabashi Street. Gifu also has a strong coffee culture and an appreciation for local traditions in art and craft as well as cuisines.

After I make my interventions, the civic center will open like a gateway in all directions. With my design of the new facade, visitors and passerbys alike can appreciate the view of Kogane Park from any side of the building. The street, civic center and Kogane Park become one visually. I adjusted the programmes as well, redesigning the underutilized multi-purpose hall into a space with four new purposes. I hope that the journey through the civic center will also be like walking through a gateway from the busy modern values into the traditional values.

Firstly, we have the design studio for the promotion of traditional crafts. The art works will be displayed in passageways all over the civic center. I choose design studio because to me respecting and promoting tradition does not mean a simple act of copy and paste, instead it is to create a set of valuable principles for the future generations to enjoy much like our ancestors had done. I hope new traditions can be created here.

Secondly, I have chosen a library to occupy a very large amount of space as the library is the vessel of knowledge and tradition. It is also possible for the public to access and enjoy the views of Kogane Park. Visitors of the library can also observe the design studio from the higher floor.

Thirdly, at the first floor I introduce a coffee shop at the street side so busy office workers can stop by in the morning for breakfast, taking advantage of the location and increasing the utility. This can also be a good introduction to the building’s other functions that they can perhaps come back to at a different time.

Fourthly, traditional cuisine is introduced at the Kogane Park side, as the diners can enjoy a more peaceful and relaxing scenery.

Lastly, to increase the accessibility from the street to the Kogane Park and to respect the ancient approach to the Kogane Shrine as well as reducing maintenance cost of areas with little use, the right wing of civic center is demolished. It is replaced with the restored approach to the popular shrine. The shrine’s torri will in fact be visible from the street, half revealed behind some greeneries, a sight to welcome.

As one can see, the huge windows greatly enhance interaction between the inside and outside of the building. Inside the building, the spatial relationship between the different floors can be seen in the MPH. At the same time, I actually did not change the auditorium as I wish to preserve the nice sound quality and beautiful interior design. During the festival time, the auditorium can still be instrumental in being the venue of performances.

The first floor plan illustrates the relationship between the Kinkabashi road and the civic center, where the new openings allow for access from all directions, especially from the zebra crossings.

The massing model of the new civic center the roof is modified with the aperture at the top so skylight is provided. Even though the support structure for the roof remains intact, light will still pass through the support structures.