Motomachi Apartment Complex completed!

Looks surreal but a real photo

This is a photo from a special exhibition on Motomachi, meaning the foundation town. The area was named so because Hiroshima’s development in the early 20th century started here.

The special exhibition is currently being held in the gallery on the basement level of the east wing of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The gallery lies at the further end of one of the two corridors. The poster will tell which corridor you should go down. Quite interesting to see how Motomachi transformed.

For Hiroshima survivors who lost too much, this huge Motomachi Apartment Complex was built by the city and prefecture of Hiroshima. Architect OTAKA Masato, commissioned to design the complex, made four fundamental proposals:

1. The building wings are laid out to stand in a zigzag way.

2. A large scale outdoor public space is effectively secured.

3. Humans and automobiles move on different levels, respectively.

4. Roof tops are open to the public.

Which remind you of Le Corbusier's five points of architecture:

pilotis, the roof garden, an open floor plan, ribbon windows, and a free façade.

No wonder.

OTAKA worked in the office of MAEKAWA Kunio from 1949 to 1961. MAEKAWA (1905-1986) was a drafter for Le Corbusier in Paris from 1928 to 30 and for Antonin Raymond in Tokyo from 1930 to 35.

Another feature which should be mentioned is that OTAKA designed the complex to be a community equipped with a children’s nursery, kindergarten, elementary school, stores, clinic, fire station, police station, and public bathhouse. This sounds a bit like Unité d'habitation (Cité Radieuse) by Le Corbusier. And of course, the Motomachi Complex has pilotis and roof garden.

TANGE Kenzo, who was inspired by Le Corbusier's design for the Palace of Soviets as a young man and later designed Peace Park and the Museum, also worked for MAEKAWA.

There seems to be a world wide web of humans.

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