Toyota Corolla Shinosaka Meishin Ibaraki | Osaka, Japan | 2018 

Architects: Takenaka Corporation 
Client: Toyota Shin-Osaka Sale Holdings, Inc. 
General Contractor: Takenaka Corporation 
Photographers: Nacasa & Partners Inc., Nakamichi Atsushi, and Hahakura Tomoki 

Domestic demand for automobiles is declining. People are getting away from cars, the environment surrounding the purchase of a car is about to change dramatically. This project is the birth of "a new geometry based on the relationship between people, buildings and their surroundings. Redefining the box showroom as an expression of movement to new experiences and opportunity.In making a new car showroom, I thought about how to deal with dealers as "a place to discover new experience". Within we have an outdoor shop and a library space to create an unexpected experience for all visitors. I wanted to redefine the concept of purchasing a car. And I also wanted to redefine the box showroom to an expression of the movement of cars. The road has been folded over so as to create a test driving course on the site, A tunnel space with floors, walls and ceilings in a row. A new space that blends into the surrounding suburb.A large sweeping curve creates a test drive course, and continues to the top of the roof, and forms an outdoor exhibition space "PARKING HILL"Visitors who are not interested in cars can relax in a tunnel-shaped interior space wrapped with wood-based materials. The outdoor shop tent is used as a kids' corner. In this curved interior space, the time to choose a car by family while looking at outdoor goods, turning the book, time to imagine and discover a new experience.As I go up the spiral staircase set in the center of the showroom, I reach the outdoor exhibition space "PARKING HILL". There, the green lawn spreads under the open sky, you can imagine the scenery of the holiday, new experience and future. 

About form determination

In planning a new car showroom, a unique "big outdoor exhibition space" and "test drive course" were important factors to differ from other dealers. The interior space was placed within a curved test drive course, the roof covering the interior space is continuous running to ground level and planned as an outdoor exhibition space on the roof.To satisfy the ceiling height of the showroom in relation to the roof and the test drive course, we needed to find a solution which satisfies the gradient of 1/6. This solution allows a car to travel across the roof, and it determined the size of the building and the thickness of the roof. A new form was found through a parametric study in which the cross section and the plan were linked. We switched the traditional X,Y,Z(axis) system to a new geometry of space which has not only the dimension of a person but is also in a new scale that includes the size and movement of a car. For example the turning circle of the car and the road gradient.It is the birth of "a new geometry based on the relationship between people, buildings and their surroundings. Creating a new dynamic in the way we experience the car.