Sachi House | Shizuoka, Japan | 2017

Architects: NOSIGNER 
Associate Architects: Another Apartment
Client: Kawamura Hospital
General Contractor: Kawamura Hospital
Photographer: Kunihiko Sato

Patients who are forced to stay hospitalized often suffer from loneliness and anxiety in hospitals. It can be difficult to spend time with hope and easily forget their right to dignity as a human being in such places. On the other hand, nurses, who are often exposed to harsh working environments, do not have much time to relax and take a break. Japan is missing such environments where both hospitalized patients and nurses can comfortably spend time together.

Sachi House is like a "house" that aims to bring back the right to the patients' dignity of life, that encourages hospitalized patients, their families, and friends to come together. 

At the same time, this is a place for nurses to be able to relax in such environments. To protect the well-being of both hospitalized patients and nurses, we designed this architecture like a two-family house.

In addition, by constructing a space according to the site of a triangle, and using local thinning wood, we faced the issues of forestry loss that affects the whole of Japan. This house is a thoroughly authentic architecture, built in the local nature and ecosystem.

While building a contact point for both hospitalized patients and nurses, we prepared two separate entrances for its respective spaces, using the second floor for nurses and the first floor as a space for patients, perfect for a two-family household.

The triangular site faces a main street with heavy traffic on one side, and a quiet side street on the other. Instead of creating an opening on the main street side of the building, (that is the front side of the building) we designed one side of the pathway to glaze and overlook the greenery of the garden, to look as if it is situated in a forest.

We utilized the part of the bark that would have usually been thrown away as the outer layer of the building. We left the bark as it is, using the inner material as squared bars for the interior, devoting the design to keep its natural form as much as possible.

Various design rules are set for the Maggie's Center, which many famous architects have been involved, such as Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid. When designing SACHI HOUSE, we followed all of these rules under the supervision of Maggie's Center.

Sachi House opened as a welfare facility attached to Kawamura Hospital in Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture. It is starting to function not only as a place for inpatients, family members and nurses, but also as a place for local residents to gather together. Events such as yoga classes and tea ceremonies are also held frequently, generally opening on Wednesdays every week, expanding everyday as a community center.