Odaka Pioneer Village / RFA+CFA

Text description provided by the architects. A small complex of coworking spaces, guesthouses, and makers’ spaces in Odaka Ward, Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture, which is located in the area affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, close to the site of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and where residents were ordered to evacuate until July 2016. It functions as “factory of action” that creates new businesses in the disaster area by becoming a people magnet and reassembling the social.

All spaces are abutted by two or more corridors, with no dead ends in the corridors, and the building’s interior is structured as a varied and sequential pathway that naturally meets each user. Around the large staircase are meeting spaces and counter tables and countertops integrated with the railings, creating an “interiorized plaza” where people are arranged in a three-dimensional manner.

Located adjacent to the grand staircase is the kitchen, which becomes a place where people meet, like a café on the side of the plaza.

The elevation facing the road is made of polycarbonate laminates that illuminate the interior in the daytime and the city at night, while the elevation facing the center of the city is made of continuous horizontal windows integrated with a work desk. These act as a semi-transparent interface that tells the outside what happens to people operating inside.