Gold Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2020
Warm Transparency Clinic
- A' Design Award 2020 Gold Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: TSC Architects
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 48,052
- Verification code 11C6398F81 · Verify this award
About Warm Transparency Clinic
Conventionally, a hospital tends to be a space that has poor natural color or material due to artificial structure material to improve the functionally and the efficiency. Therefore, patients feel that they are being apart from their daily life. A consideration for a comfortable environment where patients can spend and free from stress, should be taken. TSC architects provide an open, comfortable space by setting an L-shaped open ceiling space and the large eaves by using a plenty of wood material. The warm transparency of this architecture connects people and medical services.
Within the continuum of contemporary architectural practice, Yoshiaki Tanaka's Warm Transparency Clinic emerges as a thoughtful meditation on how medical architecture might foster healing through environmental generosity and material warmth. The design appears to engage with longstanding traditions of timber construction while embracing modernist principles of transparency and spatial openness, creating a synthesis that feels both rooted in craft heritage and progressive in its social vision. The structural system—with its elegantly expressed diagonal bracing visible through the upper-level glass envelope—transforms engineering necessity into aesthetic celebration, each triangulated timber member contributing to a rhythmic pattern that animates the facade while communicating the building's constructive logic. The material palette demonstrates sophisticated understanding of how natural timber surfaces, with their inherent warmth and tactile appeal, might humanize institutional environments that often suffer from clinical coldness. Particularly notable is the building's relationship to its site and context: the generous cantilevered roof extends welcome and shelter, the accessible entrance with clearly marked universal access provisions suggests inclusive design values, and the luminous transparency during evening hours transforms the facility into a civic beacon. The photograph captures this architectural intention at the liminal moment of twilight when interior warmth glows against the cooling atmosphere, suggesting the building as a place of comfort and care. The interplay between solid timber zones and transparent glass passages creates visual rhythm while allowing natural light to penetrate deep into interior spaces during daytime hours. How might architecture, through such careful attention to material, light, and openness, contribute to the psychological comfort of those seeking medical care?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The large wood eaves provide a space to receive the patients into the clinic and a veranda where the patients can feel the sense of secure even outside of the building. Inside the clinic, TSC architects provided a waiting space where the patients can feel the warmth of sunny and an open feeling by setting the L-shaped open ceiling space along the tangent. A plenty of wood material was used for portions touched by people directly for reducing nervousness. This building has "Warm transparency" for the town.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Areas: Site dimension 711 sqm / Plot ratio 53% / built area 374 sqm / Total floor space: 501 sqm
- Tags
- Architecture, Hospital, Design, Life, Health, Public, Clinic, Warm, Transparency, Wood
- Production Technology
- Details of support structure: steel frame.
To configure the large eaves and the L-shaped open ceiling space, TSC architects adopted a steel structure with a brace. A space truss on the upper part of the open ceiling space plays an important role. Although a steel Y-shaped column, which consists of the space truss, are interposed between the wood material, the steel members are intentionally visible to show the functional means of the steel member. - Design Challenge
- A space truss on the upper part of the open ceiling space plays an important role to configure the large eaves and the L-shaped open ceiling space. To hide a horizontal member of the open ceiling space, the space truss is consisted of members of a half-size H-shaped steel and a flat bar. The surface rigidities of the space truss and the roof support the large eaves while securing a power transmission in the horizontal direction.
- Project Duration
- Project duration did from May 2018 to January 2019.
Location is 4-72 Kinjocho Kita-ku, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture. - Operation Flow
- The large eaves and the L-shaped open ceiling space generate a gradation for the boundary between gradation town and the clinic. They created a comfortable intermediate space in addition to a function as a building space. The L-shaped open ceiling space connects a spaces of the rehabilitation room and the waiting room on the second floor in addition to the outside and the inside of use clinic so that the patients can spend relax, comfortable time as if they are being in a lobby.
- Research
- A hospital tends to be a space that has poor natural color or material due to artificial structure material to improve the functionally and the efficiency. Therefore, patients feel that they are being apart from their daily life. A consideration for a comfortable environment where patients can spend and free from stress, should be taken.
TSC architects provide an open, comfortable space by setting an L-shaped open ceiling space and the large eaves by using a plenty of wood material. - Inspiration
- The client requested a clinic where we can feel warmth of wood. TSC architects tried to achieve a clinic that has "Warm transparency" by using a plenty of wood material for both the interior and exterior material. And TSC architects set the large wood eaves extended from inside of the building to a tangent between the town that has traffic laden street. The large wood receive the patients and generates a space where the patients can feel the sense of secure even outside the building, being a symbol of the town.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Hiroshi Tanigawa
Image #2: Photographer Hiroshi Tanigawa
Image #3: Photographer Hiroshi Tanigawa
Image #4: Photographer Hiroshi Tanigawa
Image #5: Photographer Hiroshi Tanigawa - Patents
- Yoshiaki Tanaka
Colors of Warm Transparency Clinic
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We specialize in creating warm, human-centered architectural spaces for healthcare facilities and residences. Our award-winning approach integrates natural materials, particularly wood, with transparent design principles to reduce stress and enhance wellbeing.
G0E23 ShopGrand Interview about Warm Transparency Clinic
The architecture that is generally associated with new building materials tends to be a space lacking in natural colors and materials. In particular, the architecture of medical clinics has been covered with artificial materials in order to prioritize function and efficiency. It is becoming more and more distant from the ordinary senses of human beings.That's why we made extensive use of wood, a material that has long been familiar in Japanese homes, so that patients could feel relaxed and comfortable thanks to the warmth of the wood.
By planning an L-shaped atrium, patients can spend time in a bright and open space filled with natural light. The L-shaped atrium not only connects the first and second floors, but also visually connects the clinic with the city.
The large wooden eaves serve as a weatherproof approach space for patients and create a protected space like a veranda even when they are outside and become a place for the local community. In addition, the large eaves are designed as a passive design to shield the southeast side from the sun.
The design of this building was based on our desire to create a space that would provide healing for patients by incorporating a wooden feel, while also meeting functionality and legal requirements.By reinterpreting and extending the common architectural usage of eaves and vaulted ceilings and using familiar materials such as wood, I tried to create a clinic with “warmth and transparency” where patients and medical staff can feel calm and positive.
By installing bold trusses on the glass surface of the exterior wall on the second floor facing the atrium, we aimed to express the structure itself as a distinctive design.
We believe that a hospital building should be a place where patients and medical staff feel less stress and more comfortable. We also believe that having a clinic nearby that is easy for people to visit is effective in terms of maintaining their health.
Patients tend to feel more tense in closed spaces. This clinic is open, and the warmth of the wood helps patients feel calm.In addition, the design, which makes the interior visible from the outside, makes medical care feel more familiar, providing a sense of security to local residents.
Since there are many inorganic buildings surrounding this building, we wanted to create an architecture that conveys the warmth of wood not only inside but also outside.So, we will use a combination of antibacterial and wooden materials in the examination rooms and other functional rooms. In the waiting area where many patients stay, we will use many wooden materials to create a calm and relaxing space and let the warmth of the wood show through the glass surface to the city.
Especially in urban medical facilities, space is limited, so functionality tends to be the only priority. However, we believe that we should not neglect to make efforts to make patients comfortable, such as planning an interior that gives a sense of the warmth of wood. This will increase patient satisfaction and differentiate us from other clinics.
Rehabilitation is not just fun. We believe that conducting rehabilitation in an open space can increase the motivation of patients.