Project Description

A visitor center for Japanʼs first cutting edge full-fledged inland thermal power plant, located in Moka city, southern part of Tochigi prefecture. It was meant to invite primary and secondary school students around the area to visit this center that was designed like a hidden cave, with the excitement of being in an unusual space, and let the children learn about the future of energy and how it is related to the living environment. The power plant produces loud noise, it has huge 300 meter long, 30 meter high sound barrier wall to enclose its noise from the neighborhood. In addition to that, another 5-meter high sound barrier wall is added at the centerʼs boundary, acting as part of the building outer wall, this 5-meter sound barrier wall, together with the retaining wall supporting the hills, form the exhibition center, while leniently adapting to the surrounding environment. To blend with the surrounding greenery, hills, and woods, the outer wall (sound barrier wall and retaining wall) mutates, creating an intermediate space where the building merge into the surrounding environment, connecting the two different elements, the power plant and the nature.