© Courtesy of Riken Yamamoto
The Fussa City Hall was completed in 2008 by Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto, 40 km from Tokyo. The two twin tiled towers emerge from an undulating carpet of grass that covers the site and allows for a public recreational space in a large office complex.
Fussa City Hall technical information
- Architects: Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop
- Typology: Cultural Architecture / City Hall
- Location: Fussa, Japan
- Site area: 4.757 ㎡
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Floor area: 10.228 ㎡
- Completion : 2008
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Structure: RC+PCa+SRC
- Evocative topics: Continuity, Tiles, Topography
- Photographs: © Courtesy of Riken Yamamoto
The skin of the towers transfers into the landscape.
– Beda Faessler, partner of Riken Yamamoto
Fussa City Hall Photographs
© Courtesy of Riken Yamamoto
© Courtesy of Riken Yamamoto
© Courtesy of Riken Yamamoto
© Courtesy of Riken Yamamoto
Article by the Architects
The Fussa City Hall is located about 50 km away from Tokyo city center in a dense residential area. The landscape conforms to the local topography: low hills stepping up from the banks of the Tama River.
The lower levels of the city hall called “Forum”, are the ones open to the public and used by the citizens. They are placed under an undulated organic roof, from where two twin towers rise. The roof itself is a green public space for citizens’ daily life as well as a place for various events and activities. The greenery on the roof makes the building more energy-efficient reducing energy losses and helping to integrate it into the surrounding environment.
The two towers containing the main offices, provide the city hall with a strong iconic image. To provide the offices with a maximum of space quality, the main idea is to place the structure of the building on the exterior façade avoiding structure elements in the working space. The pillars and beams of the outer skin structure become thinner on the upper parts of the tower, helping the building to look light and soft towards the sky.
The factory-made, pre-cast concrete is used for the slab and outer skin structure. Pre-cast concrete is a high-performance material, it is earthquake resistant and suits the speedy constructions. Using this construction system the government offices and assembly functions needed in the city hall have no limitations and the distribution of the interior is free and flexible according to the users’ preferences.
About Riken Yamamoto
Riken Yamamoto was born in 1945 Beijing, China and is a Japanese architect. He completed his bachelor’s degree from Nihon University in 1967 and his master’s degree from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1971, after which he continued his studies at the University of Tokyo. He founded the Yamamoto & Field Shop Co. Ltd in 1973. Some of his most representative works are the Rotunda Building in Yokohama (1981); the Hamlet Building in Tokio (Shibuya-Ku, 1988), or the apartment blocks Ryukoentoshi in Yokohama (1992). Riken Yamamoto has won The Japan Institute of Architects Award for the Yokosuka Museum of Art (2010), the Building Contractors Society Prize for the Namics Techno Core (2010), the Building Contractors Society Prize for the Yokosuka Museum of Art (2008) or the 25th Fukushima Architecture Culture Award for the SUS Fukushima Factory (2007).