AIG Building Nagasaki
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At a glance
- Project by: Dasic Architects
- Location: Nagasaki Bay, Kyushu, Japan
Preview image
© Peter Cook
Project images
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Peter Cook View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Dasic Architects View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Dasic Architects View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Dasic Architects View project image |
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AIG Building Nagasaki © Dasic Architects View project image |
Architect's statement
Program
The site is located on the new man made island in the center of city and of the Nagasaki Bay. It is not far from the historical Dejima Island, which for the 250 years of the Edo period was the only place open to foreign traders.
Nagasaki Bay owns its history as a great port to its natural setting. Surrounded by all side with hills and mountains it became a center of foreign trade and technology after opening of Japan in 1853. As a result many Japanese as well as newly arrived foreign businessman set up their homes on the hills above and their business in the city. Today, still the most imposing reminder of that period is the Mitsubishi Shipyard located on the other side of the bay. The large ocean liners being build or serviced in the shipyard are integral part of the overall Nagasaki bay urban landscape, today. The hills above are well populated with houses and apartment blocks as well as numerous church towers for which Nagasaki is famous. In a way, looking at our site from the hills above, became the most important angle and the roof becomes a "fifth façade".
The new island was to have a large carefully landscaped park with a new Nagasaki Museum, designed by Kengo Guma on the North portion. Recently completed new access road to the city, which comes through the tunnels bored through the surrounding hills enter the city just outside the park, making it almost symbolically the center of Nagasaki.
Amid that background, the City of Nagasaki and American insurance giant AIG reached an agreement for AIG to build its new building in Nagasaki right in the center of the new island. AIG would use the new building to consolidate its various business until now scattered among the various locations in the city.
The building is to in-house over 2000 people with various office and relaxation facilities of which some are operating 24 hours.
The client's requirement was for creating an extremely efficient yet comfortable workspace for its employees. It was to be a flexible space, allowing for future adjustments and changes with a minimum disruption to the ongoing business.
Additional requirements, much more complex, yet challenging, came from the various Nagasaki city bodies charged with overseeing the city's urban re-generation. The main one was Nagasaki Design Committee. A body set up from distinguished professors, architects and designers to ensure that the new developments fit well the overall urban concept as well as high standards set by the city.
Concept
The Nagasaki climate was an important factor in the overall design concept. Nagasaki has extremely hot summers and a scorching sun. This led to a design, which allows for openness and transparency on the East/West direction with closeness and protection on the South side.
After going through a number of design schemes and sketches the "wave-rolling", dynamic design comprising from an aluminum rolling "skin envelope" wrapped around a glass clad transparent spaces, creating a kind of gate or a binocular between the city and the bay was the one we went always back to. Of course the ship curves as well as wave symbolism, one of the most used motif in traditional Japanese prints, helped in forging a dynamic, modern yet a strongly contextual concept.
Design
Following the shape of the site the building was fixed on a 120x40m rectangular form. The mass was broken in two parts: North and South with Entrance Halls located in "buffer" zones between. The height of the North part was 4 floors, which correlates to the height of the new museum across the canal. The South wing is 5 floors.
The 5th floor space will be used not as a standard office floor like 1st-4th, but will in-house a serious of training, meeting and relaxation facilities for the employees. As such, we used the roof of the 4th floor for a large wood and landscaped deck, creating a stunning viewing platform overlooking the city and the bay. The deck rolls naturally under the 9m-cantilevered skin roof and leads gently in to the break room's area.
The 5th floor roof was almost completely landscaped as well. Although it will not be accessible, apart for maintenance through a sculptural spiral staircase, it will create a kind of "green camouflage" together with the deck, making this rather large structure "blend" with the surrounding park while viewed from the surrounding hills. All the M&E machinery, which is usually found on the roof, has been placed within the core of the fifth floor (with the open roof above), thus hiding them from the hills view and retaining unbroken smooth movements of the skin envelope.
Furthermore, the roof landscaping will help with the overall building energy efficiency by dealing with the direct summer sun much better then a metal cladding.
The cladding' envelope is designed as a kind of solid "antithesis" to the glass façades. The interior requirement called for windows on both South and North side as well so in order to create the necessary openings and at the same time retain the overall concept, the North/South windows were designed as a long strips, which will provide view and natural light, yet protect interior from the sun and heat. The glass plates were placed flushed with the metal cladding and the size and spacing between the glasses is equivalent to the aluminum cladding dimensions. Furthermore the glass plane is coated with aluminum glaze thus further blending with the skin.
To help the sun and heat intake through the large glass areas a systems of louvers was installed within North and South wings enclosures. The 2m extrusion of the skin envelope creates additional sun shading.
Nagasaki Civic Hall which is a separate functional entity is housed in the two storey glass box extruding from the overall building mass and reaching towards the museum and the canals and promenades. The building mass and the North wing in particular, will act as a sun shading for the glass cube and the hall glass roof.
Lighting
During the work evening hours, East/West glass will act as a giant screen contrasted and framed by the skin envelope. However, after hours, when the office lights are turned off, the set of specially designed, high intensity, lighting fixtures with a narrow beam reflectors placed on the extruded façade parts on the inside of extrusion will be switched on. When fully powered, they will lit the inside part of the opposing envelope while leaving the vertical glass walls untouched. The effect will create an image of aluminum skin envelope glowing and floating above the park.
At the same time the LED powered corporate sign will become more and more visible. Depending on orientation they will play different roles: signage on the East will be marking the main building entrance and "communicating to the city". The one on the West, placed high on the façade, will act as a kind of ship insignia mirroring ocean liners passing through the Nagasaki bay and along the building. It will create a fitting addition to the centuries old maritime tradition of the City of Nagasaki.
Finishes
- Facade: Aluminum Cladding; Double Glazing; Aluminum Extruded Louvers
- Floors: Granite (Entrance Hall, Corridors, Public Areas, Civic hall)
- Walls: Aluminum Cladding; Polished Concrete (Entrance Hall, Corridors, Public Areas, Civic hall)
Details/Credits
- Location: Dejima, Nagasaki Bay, Nagasaki, Kyushu, Japan
- Floor area: 20,000 m2 (6,000 tsubo); Net rentable area: 16,500 m2 (5,000 tsubo)
- Design: January 2004 - September 2004
- Construction: January 2005 - December 2005
- Dasic Architects team: George Dasic; Shunichi Tajima; Benigna Iwasaki, Reiko Fukushi and Tamaki Suzuki
- Client: AIG Japan - Paul Boylan
- PM and Engineers: Arup Japan - Duncan Macintyre, Teppei Ishibashi
- Construction: Taisei Construction
- Photography: Peter Cook
