This steel-frame, single-story tenant space is located in a long-established shopping street in the heart of Nagoya City. The layout is designed for flexibility, allowing the approximately 30 tsubo floor area to be divided into three rental units of about 10 tsubo each, accommodating a variety of potential uses.
The structure features a gate-shaped steel frame reinforced with large steel plate braces, all finished in black skin to preserve the raw character of the material. The exterior is clad in a folded-plate roof and metal panels, contributing to a rugged, iron-like aesthetic that blends into the nostalgic atmosphere of the shopping street, while simultaneously suggesting a sense of newness and possibility.
All openings facing the alley are rotating doors, which, when fully opened, transform the interior into an open, seamless space. When closed, the glass surfaces reflect scenes from the shopping street and interior activity, creating a large screen-like facade. This reduces the building’s visual presence, functioning like a frame that captures and projects its surroundings.
In the rear garden, reused rusted railroad sleepers serve as paving and planting elements. These materials, along with the building’s frame and screen design, blur the boundaries between inside and outside, uniting the garden, earthen floor, and street into a cohesive, continuous space.