Chokkura Shelter
Kengo Kuma 

Chokkura Shelter

Kengo Kuma 


Takanezawa is an agricultural municipality, located in Tochigi Prefecture, some 100 kilometers north of Tokyo, with a population of approximately 30,000 and traditionally devoted to rice farming. Its proximity to Utsunomiya, capital of the province, to which it is connected by highway and railway, has favored its growth especially in the automobile and beer industries.In the areas surrounding the Chokkura Plaza Civic Center, next to the railway tracks, a green shed points at the access to the station. Built with stainless steel mesh of 3-4 millimeters in diameter and following the pattern tried out with the stone of the civic center, with time this ombrière will be completely covered with trumpet honeysuckle. Though with very different materials – stone and sheet –, both works have in common the rhomboidal geometry of their enclosures, and their light and permeable image. The porous but still massive stone blocks of the civic center contrast with the light character of the mesh that generates an almost transparent three-dimensional structure. Sheltered by the clear shadow that the metallic mesh casts, a path of rice husks provides an alternative experience to the linear, open course of the opposite sidewalk.


Cliente Client

Takanezawa Town

Arquitecto Architect

Kengo Kuma & Associates

Colaboradores Collaborators

Oak Structural Design Office (estructura structural engineering)

Contratista Contractor

Ohta Co., Ltd. / Fukuda doboku zouen Co., Ltd.

Fotos Photos

Daici Ano