
PRIMARY ORTHOPAEDIC AZABUJUBAN CLINIC
ORTHOPAEDIC CLINIC / TOKYO, 2009
"Seamless rehabilitation space" - An orthopaedics clinic on the top of a newly-built building, which faces on a street with long-established stores in Azabujuban, Minato Ward, Tokyo. Peculiar to the top floor, abundant natural light streams into the rooms. Most of the view is the sky, and if you look down there is a scenery of the town and the greens. A point to scrutinize uses that their patients are not only just ordinary patients, but also sports players for the rehabilitating, the training, and the health maintenance. Because it was thought that the image of the usual medical space was just for medical treatments, and it did not become familiar with these sports players. Also, there are a lot of embassies in this area, and we could expect that a lot of foreigners, who work there, care about their health and become a considerable ratio of the patients. That is why we considered that this space should be a brightly opened space by throwing away the concept of past clinics. And this abundant natural light was an effective factor. It was a key, whether we could lead the light efficiently into the space. We paid attention to the relation between the waiting-room space and the rehabilitating-room. First, we made most of the spaces which face to the windows to the rehabilitating-room, and we visually combined this rehabilitating-room and the waiting-room spaces. By making the boundary with colored glass, still there is enough permeation of view, and that made this rehabilitating-room to an open space like a gym, not like the past, an isolated rehabilitating-room. In other words, we placed this space in a healthier, more active space, not just a place where the medical treatments are done. And to let the abundant light into as far as the waiting-room space, we aimed the entire clinic to be a continuously bright space. The first thing, which comes into your sight at the moment you get off the elevator and get into the clinic is this open rehabilitating-room and the sky extends behind it. The other rooms are placed depending on their functions, and everything is in a movement line based on the open common space.
