New EFEO Centre | Mikan

This building houses the local section of the French School of Far East Studies, which is devoted to the study of Japanese history and civilisation. It is located in the area of Shirakawa, at the northeast part of Kyôto, facing a narrow street within a domestic context.

The architecture of this building exemplifies the need for developing the relationship with traditional wooden craftsmanship, a functional working space and a sustainable environment. These main targets are thus linked into a comprehensive design. Each of the three stories supports a single function with a different kind of tectonic expression. The first floor, which is the main library for researchers, is a single room with a strong structural expression of post and beam, with a set of pillars of local Shirakawa cedar. The span, based on the measurement of ken, is both economical and enhances traditional proportions. The second floor is a set of box-like units of linen plywood with a soft touch for the researchers offices. The third floor is a large lecture room covered like a barn with expressive buttresses and protruding eaves. Towards the street, which is the only visible side and the main source of external light, a kind of giant bookshelf/staircase serves both as the symbol of the centre, a vertical circulation and a buffer zone to protect privacy and from hot western light.

In terms of sustainability, the giant-book shelf/staircase, serving as a buffer, is covered with state of the art glass panels. They use a new technology of chromic glass, controlled through a computer system, which reacts automatically to the intensity of the light. Such a control allows glass panels to stop UV rays through the variation of transparency of the glass. Good insulation, cool tube, carefully planned openings allowing natural air circulation and solar panels are also displayed. Eventually, the extensive use of simple structural span and wooden craftsmanship of plywood, OSB panels, for both the architecture, the interior and the furniture helped keeping a low cost construction and a relation towards tradition expressed with contemporary means.