SPACE GOGOSHIMA

Gogoshima is an outlying island about 15 minutes by ferry from Takahama Port in Matsuyama. Long popular as a destination for day trips, yet steadily losing population, the island became the focus of a revitalization project aimed at making it a place where people stay and enjoy their time. A newly built workation (work + vacation) hub and the conversion of vacant houses into private guesthouses were carried out in parallel. Space Gogoshima is the hub of that project: the island's first multipurpose shared-space and workation facility, newly built right in front of Yura Port, the island's gateway.

In contrast to the two guesthouses, whose exteriors were left largely untouched apart from repairs and repainting so that they would blend into the island's landscape, here we gave the building a fresh exterior that would symbolize the start of a new movement to revitalize the island. Even so, rather than using siding, we clad the walls in painted yakisugi (charred cedar), so that the building would sit comfortably with the island's scenery and surroundings at the level of texture. The left and right wings are painted in crisply contrasting monochrome to visually break up a volume that is large compared with the surrounding buildings, helping it blend into the scale of its neighborhood. It was also meant to emphasize a composition made up of a few simple rectangular forms.

Between the two wings runs a tōri-niwa, an alley-like passage that cuts through the building. When an earlier building stood on this site, there was an alley-like path beside it that islanders used every day. Our first concern was not to block it and leave people feeling that "outsiders from the city have closed off our path." Put more positively, we thought it would be wonderful if a scene emerged in which islanders, with no particular errand, would wander through the passage, or stop to rest on the benches or the terrace outside.

The ground floor of the black west wing is a self-contained community kitchen. When its large glass sliding doors are thrown open, it becomes a lively gathering place that can be used together with the passage and the deck terrace at the front of the building. It is a bold way of opening up, hardly conceivable in an urban district for reasons of security and privacy, but it works naturally here thanks to the island's environment, where residents all know one another. The ground floor also houses a community lounge and a small meeting room, while the upper floor, connected to the ground floor by a void, holds a shared office, a large meeting room, and private booths. The spacious front yard, set well back from the road, doubles as parking and as an outdoor event space.

In the few years since completion, the building has hosted a wide range of unconventional activities, from cooking and yoga classes to site-specific performance events. Some monthly members have reportedly said that the facility was what prompted them to move to the island. The client has remained involved in revitalizing Gogoshima since this series of projects, and this building, standing right in front of the port, continues to serve as the base for those activities.