his 200m-long canopy was designed for a new public space in Misumi. This small town, in the province of Kumamoto, situated at the end of sightseeing railway line, started reconverting a dead parking area into a lively public space, connecting the existing harbor with the train station. The brief called for a design that guides visitors to the harbor, and that had a light-weight appearance (despite being 4.5m high) fitting to the local landscape of sea, mountains and existing buildings. The canopy, with its meandering path and its seemingly simple flat roof, merges into the landscape while presenting its unique identity. The choice of details adds to the contrast between the heavy cast columns and the lightweight roof, and provides different impressions between day – and nighttime.

Specific features|
The 200m long curved roof works as a continuous ring girder structure, sitting on the pin support of the columns. Giving a curved shape to the overall geometry allows for eccentric column positions to support the roof, and provides a 4 m wide column-free space. The roof structure comprises of sandwich panels of 9mm and 12mm thicknesses, containing transverse stiffeners inside. Using load-bearing elements as the finishing surface is a simple but elegant expression of structure. Sandwich panels were segmented to be produced in the factory, and shipped later to the site. This allowed for the reduction of the site-working period and the overall costs. The construction was realized with the collaboration of the architects and a highly skilled ship builders.

Program| Complete mission for architectural and structural design of canopy
Study | 2013-2014
Execution｜2015-2016
Client｜Kumamoto Prefecture
Budget｜Canopy 210,000,000yen, Foundation　40,000,000 yen
Scale｜Length 200m, Width 5m, Height 4.5m
Architect & Engineer | Ney & Partners
Site | Misumi, Japan
Image credit | Ney & Partners, momoko japan

Distinctions
Good Design Award and 2016 Japanese Structural Design Prize