Sumiko Ebara
Proceedings of the 14th International Docomomo Conference - Adaptive Reuse: The Modern Movement Towards the Future 969-974 2016年 査読有り筆頭著者
The Inohama Memorial Hall at Chiba University, Japan, was completed in 1964 and is one of the earliest pieces of architecture by Fumihiko Maki, who was commissioned in association with Takenaka Corporation's design branch. The hall is situated on a hill called Inohana, or the "elephant's nose", and its surrounding environment is calm and quiet. Maki decided to design this hall with an inclined wall, imbuing it with the sense that the building is a continuation of the hill. The construction of the inclined wall from reinforced concrete required considerable technical and management skill: 5 experiments were conducted before the actual construction and as a result of the careful construction plan, the inclined wall was completed with no visible rock pockets or sand traces. The auditorium, meanwhile, was rather unique in being designed with a sense of "openness". No wall was constructed between the auditorium and the foyer on the second floor level, and the partition between the auditorium and meeting rooms was transparent. Moreover, a remarkable collaboration was undertaken with the sculptor Masayuki Nagare, who was commissioned to create not only a mural on the stage and a gong above the entrance, but also the retaining walls on the front square, which give the hall its sense of elegance and dignity and a feeling of continuity with Inohana hill. In 1993 and 2014, renovations were undertaken at Inohana Memorial Hall, which primarily aimed to improve its function as an auditorium and to improve its earthquake resistance. To this end, a partition wall was installed on the second floor level in 1993, while in 2014, a noise-cancelling wall was inserted inside the meeting rooms and the projection booth was removed from the point of earthquake resistance. These changes collectively deprived the hall of its "openness". However, it could be argued that these changes to the "infill" were necessary to improve the auditorium for use on more formal occasions. The main structure, together with Nagare's sculpture, stands intact, and could be defined as the building's "skeleton". At the time of its renovation in 2014, this building was listed as a historic building in the Campus plan, but it has not been registered as a docomomo Japan building, in contrast to the Toyota Auditorium of Nagoya University, which was registered as such in 2003, prior to its 2006 renovation. It is now desirable to produce a description that clarifies the value of this building and draw up a management plan to maintain the Inohana Memorial Hall as a piece of living heritage.