The proposed factory design honors the cultural and industrial contributions of Super Resin Sakahama while it re-envisions the relationship between the factory and the community. An inviting garden defines the entrance to a new visitor center and showroom. A reflecting pool at the garden’s edge marks the footprint of Okamoto’s Tower of the Sun, while on the underside of the new building’s roof, a metallic sheen suggestive of the gold disk atop Okamoto’s tower lends warmth and connection with the surrounding landscape. 

Merging the divergent contexts of this developing area, the intimately scaled building harmonizes with the community and surrounding landscape. Standing at a mid-point between surrounding forests and mid-rise apartment buildings, the proposed factory casts minimal shadow on neighboring houses. The new horizon of pitched roof unifies a series of buildings to house the varied program elements, connecting with the scale of neighboring houses, while the roof is overlooked by mid-rise structures to the west. Creating a cloister-like condition, staggered volumes generate space for the community garden while obscuring views of the work yard and parking areas. The enhanced site invites the community onto its grounds while it also buffers the surrounding area from production-related activities: at the perimeter of the site, a verdant necklace of trees and vegetation together with a loop road minimizes the impact of the factory.

Super Resin Sakahama, an advanced composites production facility, has been sited within the Tama Hills of Western Tokyo since 1964. The legacy of the site spans the rapid development of the city of Inagi, which has evolved from a forested and agricultural land in the 1960s to a quasi-industrial, densely residential district in the present day. Super Resin Sakahama is celebrated for its important role in the creation of Taro Okamoto’s ‘Tower of the Sun’, fabricated on the Sakahama site in 1970, as well as its significant innovations in the realms of the arts, defense, aerospace, aviation and transportation.

The new design renews the 50-year-old facility, which houses the Super Resin headquarters, R&D lab, sales offices, and production areas, and also incorporates a new community garden, visitor center, and showroom for special events and exhibitions open to the public.

Johnston Marklee

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Super Resin

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Client

Super Resin, Inc.

Location

Inagi, Tokyo, JP

Years

2020

Site Area

10,257 sqm

Floor Area

5,425 sqm

Partners

Sharon Johnston, Mark Lee

Project Team

Project Manager: Nicholas Hofstede, Project Lead: Nelson Byun, Project Team: Stephanie Tyler, Isaac Pollan