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Motomachi & Choju-en High-rise Apartment Complexes |
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DATA |
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 Design: OOTAKA Masato
(The Motomachi Complex was supervised by Hiroshima City; Choju-en by Hiroshima Pref.)
Location: Motomachi & Nishi-hakushima-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima City, respectively
Purpose of usage
[Motomachi] Housing complex; Stores; Elementary school; Community halls
[Choju-en] Housing complex; Stores
Completed in: 1972-1976
Scale
[Motomachi] Site area: 8.11ha Total floor area: 196570sqm
[Choju-en] Site area: 4.46ha Total floor area: 101457sqm
Structure : S & RC
map (mapion)
map (Google Map) |
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| The purpose of the project was to clear slums and build decent apartment
complexes instead. The slums had appeared during the war damage reconstruction
period. One of the masterpieces in the history of housing complexes in
Japan. |
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1. History and Background
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#1 |
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Motomachi as a center of Hiroshima Garrison
The area corresponding to the present Motomachi was adjacent to the main enclosure of Hiroshima Castle and used to be the residence zone for the then ruling warrior class until the end of the Edo period. The Meiji period saw extinction of the warrior class and the modern army came to be stationed instead. The army installations occupied the whole area on the north side of Aioi Street and the Kamiyacho intersection was not a cross but a T-junction.
The Sino-Japanese War expanded army installations in Hiroshima, with the
Motomachi area as its center. The atomic bombing reduced everything to
ashes and the former army site became a vast empty lot.
The A-bomb Slums formed
Hiroshima City decided to develop the Motomachi area as a park. However, as emergency measures, the city couldn't help building simple wooden public residences to cope with the severe housing shortage. More and more people began to live in shabby shacks they built on the river beds or between the public housings without permission, creating the A-bomb Slums, or clusters of humble wooden houses densely packed.
Hiroshima City managed to replace only a portion of these wooden houses with medium-rise apartments.
No remnants of the A-bomb Slums are found and nobody talks about them any
more. Not many locals know about them. A Japanese comic book called "Town
of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms" depicts the A-bomb Slums.
The story takes place around 1955, when the city tried to build the above-mentioned
medium-rise apartments and the local squatters opposed the city's plan.
In the strips appears casually the flyer saying "No Eviction!"
This comic book is translated into English and quite recommendable.
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#2 |
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#3: (C) KOHNO Fumiyo "Town of Evening Calm" |
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| 1974 |
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On the left is a photo of Motomachi in 1974. The zigzag-shaped Motomachi
Apartment Complex was already completed. The medium-rise apartments are
to the left. The water on the left is Hon-kawa river (Ohta-gawa river)
and the water on the right is a moat of Hiroshima Castle. Quite a number
of low-rise houses still remained. |
| #4: (C) National Land Information Office |
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| 1988 |
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This photo is Motomachi in 1988. The former slums disappeared and became
a park. |
| #5: (C) National Land Information Office |
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2. Outline of the Project
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#6 |
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An ambitious project was conceived to clear the A-bomb Slums: the total
4500 and some apartments were to be provided in the form of public high-rise
apartment buildings for the A-bomb slum dwellers, low and middle-income
citizens to solve chronic housing shortage; the created vacant lot would
be developed as a park; additionally, stores, an elementary school, and
community halls which would facilitate the daily life of the residents
were to be built.
The project was grand but afflicted with financial straits. The Motomachi
Complex Project received government subsidy under the system called the
"Residential Area Improvement Project" but it wasn't enough at
all with the construction cost constantly soaring. To minimize the dwellers'
backlash, the rent had to be low. Architectural design restrictions were
inevitable under such circumstances, with the attempt of getting the maximum
subsidy and reducing the cost.
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3. Architectural Features of Motomachi High-rise Apartment Complex
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#7 |
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Designed by OOTAKA Masato, a METABOLISM GROUP* member. OOTAKA worked for
MAEKAWA Kunio** who learned architecture under Le Corbusier. Naturally,
the Motomachi Complex was strongly affected by Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation
(1952) and MAEKAWA's Harumi Apartment Complex (1958).
Zigzag Floor Plan
The zigzag appearance of the complex must be unique to anyone's eye. This zigzag form made it possible for every apartment to let in enough light and air.
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#8 |
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Two floors as One Unit
One unit is composed of Type A on the lower floor and Type B on the upper
floor on the area of 9.9sqm. Type A faces the corridor for common use;
Type B is approached via a staircase. This way, Type B can let light in
from either side and the cost was reduced due to less occupancy for the
public corridor. Now that the residents are advanced in age, it is a trouble
for those who have to use the stairs to approach their residence. In those
days, however, it was inevitable to employ this design. |
| #9 |
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#10 |
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#15: The greenery part is the artificial ground. Below the cross is a shopping
center. Cars are parked in the basement parking lot. At the left end of
the cross is a main community hall (400sqm). The smaller community hall
(100sqm) is on the rooftop. |
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Artificial Ground
The open space in the middle of the precinct has an artificial ground.
The first floor is a shopping center with the area of some 8000sqm; the
second floor is a passageway for pedestrians, which provides easy access
to community halls and schools. |
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Shuttered Street
Most of the stores below the artificial ground are closed and not in operation because the shopping center is secluded from the public road. This should be a mistake by the architect.
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#22 |
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#23 |
#24 |
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Rooftop Garden
Residents use this space for gardening but it is off-limits due to suspicious fire. |
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4. Present Situation and Future
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More than thirty years have passed since the completion and a number of issues have risen. A particularly grave problem is structural deterioration. When the complexes were built, inadequately rinsed sea sand was used to make concrete due to the shortage of proper sand. Therefore, the concrete is now being degraded quickly and the buildings might have to be demolished sooner than expected.
In addition, the population has been aging rapidly because the residents stay and there are almost no new comers. Using stairs is a burden for the aged. Many parts of the complexes such as the shopping center, artificial ground, pilotis, and rooftop garden are not used as the architect intended. The complexes are coming closer to its end slowly and steadily. |
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[footnotes]
* METABOLISM is the architectural design movement which took place in Japan in the 1960s. They aimed to achieve architecture which would metabolize in accordance with social changes. The advocators included high-profile architects such as KIKUTAKE Kiyonori, KUROKAWA Kisho, Ootaka Masato, and MAKI Fumihiko.
** MAEKAWA Kunio [1905-1986] A Japanese architect, mentored by Le Corbusier, left many modernism architectures.
[access]
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TRAIN : One-minute walk from Astramline Johoku Station. 15-minute
walk from Kamiya-cho. |
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Created on May 18, 2000 Last updated on Jul 4, 2008 Written by makoto Translated by jasmine Photos taken by makoto Camera: NikonD70 |
| Photos on this page are licensed under a Creative Commons License. You are free to copy and make commercial use of them under the conditions
"Attribution" and "No Derivative Works". [about copyright] |
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 NORTH DELTA INDEX |
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| (CC) arch-hiroshima 2006 |
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