AJIRO MUSUBI 旧網代小学校再生プロジェクト

The transformation of an elementary school, closed three years ago, into a multifaceted community hub featuring a café and workspace. Located in a coastal fishing town, the building also functions as a vital tsunami evacuation shelter.
The renovation focuses on the ground-floor cafeteria, which offers direct street access, aiming to create a seamless extension of the townscape. By stripping away interior finishes, the exposed concrete structure is brought into harmony with the coastal landscape—a scenery defined by its functional concrete infrastructure, such as seawalls and embankments. The new timber furniture is designed to echo the wooden fish crates typically found stacked under local eaves. To reinforce the connection with the street, greenery and LED signage were strategically introduced to transform the interior into an indoor plaza. This spatial strategy allows the energy of the town to flow naturally into the building. Alongside these new interventions, the project honors the site’s history by repurposing original school furniture and preserving student graduation murals, ensuring the collective memory of the school remains a vital part of the new community hub.