Tokyo pop lab
The main concept of the TPCC building is that it is able to best express its function through the use of color, massing and the allocation of the space.
COLOR:
The “White” emphasizes the geometries and, at the same time, it hides the volume of itself, incredibly highlighting the people who are inside or outside of this building.
Never as in this case the effectiveness of this color works so effectively. The users of TPCC are looking for an escape from the reality , playing a fictional character. They camouflage themselves and change their character depending on this. The unreal character becomes real and with it grows the desire for attention and to be the true subject of a special moment. The continuous passage through white, clear and neutral environments enhances the details, the colors and the characters themselves who are living this place. This "white sensation", at the urban scale, is able to create a gap and, at the same time, a sense of belonging between the building and the site; It recreates exactly the same relationship between popular culture and traditional Japanese culture, both seemingly distant but united by a strong bond.
THE VOLUMES
The facade has been designed with square panels of 2m by 2m, on a total height of 18m, breaking up into terraces and openings that reveal glimpses and views of the surrounding city. The material used is a smog-eating concrete, smooth and bright white in color. Some panels have pressing processes showing manga textures wrapping the entire building. This assemblage of panels and windows recreates a sense of out of scale, almost urban, wanting to give the feeling of being in a special city.
The city is in fact one of the main elements of Japanese popular culture; an almost essential background.
The cut below the projection in the building has been designed on the corner at the intersection of the two roads which allows local residents to penetrate inside the building almost involuntary, progressing through a semi-public space that involves people within the activities of the TPCC.
Through this access there is the Great exhibition hall and coffee area. The large ceiling above turns into a separating volume between level 0 and level 1 communicating with visitors of the TPCC. It consists in the composition of deformed aluminum panels that distort the reflection of the surrounding environment, turning into a sort of "alter ego"of whom everyone looks up to.
THE DIVISION OF SPACE:
The interior concept space subdivision of the first and second floor is designed by interpreting the entire slab as a layout of a manga page, creating an important relationship and communication between these two levels. A series of large floating bridges enclose the library function, outlining and projecting all the areas on the lower surface and illuminating each space thanks to a large skylight on the roof slab. In this way, each space takes shape without the use of physical barriers, ensuring a unique and highly efficient space, as required by the competition brief.
