Architect: Ryuichi Sasaki + Rieko Okumura
Design team: Ryuichi Sasaki, Rieko Okumura, Kiyoshi Iwabuchi, Mieko Watanabe /Sasaki Architecture
Contractor: Urbanplan
Color Aluminum: Shinko Stainless
Client: Kaetsu University
Photo: Ryota Atarashi, Ryuichi Sasaki
Text: Mieko Watanabe / Sasaki Architecture
Tucked away around the corner of the main entrance of the university campus, Admission Center of Kaetsu University is Sasaki Architecture’s recent renovation project of a storefront retail space facing a busy street in a Tokyo suburb. Folded surfaces that demarcate an administrative office, two meeting rooms, reception, and a small lounge can be viewed from the street through its glass façade in rectangles and trapezoids. Understated monotone colors were chosen for the ceiling, floor, and walls to accentuate the aluminum panels in crimson red, the school color, which demarcate the interior boundary between the private and the public. The center trapezoid frame, which houses the reception area, also features a video screen that engages the gaze of the passer-bys with the design at night.