Kamakura Municipal Onari Elementary School Receives the 25th JIA 25-Year Award

Kume Sekkei Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: 2-1-22 Shiomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo) is pleased to announce that the "Kamakura Municipal Onari Elementary School," designed by our firm, has received the 25th JIA 25-Year Award.

About the JIA 25-Year Award and JIA 25-Year Architecture Selection https://www.jia.or.jp/twentyfive_years/

Kamakura Municipal Onari Elementary School [Image: Photography by Naomichi Soshizaki, SS Co., Ltd.]

[Designer's Comment] We are deeply honored to have received the 25th JIA 25-Year Award.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the citizens of Kamakura, who have cherished and carefully utilized this building for over 25 years, and to the City of Kamakura for their continued, proper maintenance of this wooden structure.

This reconstruction, necessitated by the aging of the old school building, brought together the wisdom of enthusiastic citizens, architects, and school education experts to pursue a new form of educational space centered on a wooden schoolhouse.

As we face changes in the number of students and updates to educational systems, the building will need to adapt to the times through repeated renovations. It is our hope that the intention to "inherit the original landscape of Onari Elementary School" will be passed down through every generation, and that it will remain a building beloved by the local community.

[Building Overview] Name: Kamakura Municipal Onari Elementary School Location: 19-1 Onari-machi, Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture Client: Kamakura City (Kanagawa Prefecture) Designer: Kume Sekkei Contractors: Takenaka/Taiyo/Seiko Joint Venture (Architecture); Nauru Equipment (Air Conditioning); Daidan/Yamanoi Joint Venture (Sanitation); Kodensha/Shibata Electric Joint Venture (Electrical); Takenaka/Taiyo/Seiko Joint Venture / Kuranami Construction / Green Kikaku (Landscaping) Total Floor Area: 6,935㎡ Number of Floors: 2 stories above ground Structure: RC/S/W Completion: December 1998 Awards: JIA 25-Year Award / Architectural Institute of Japan Selected Architectural Works / Kanagawa Architecture Competition Grand Prize

[Design Concept] Inheriting History, A School Open to the Community Kamakura Municipal Onari Elementary School is a school with a rich tradition, founded in 1933. Its pseudo-Western-style wooden schoolhouse was not merely a nostalgic relic; it was long cherished as a spiritual anchor for local residents. An elementary school is the most familiar public facility to the people and serves as the core of the community.

Discussions regarding the reconstruction due to the aging of the old building began in the 1980s. Many citizens participated enthusiastically in the debates, and in the late 1990s, we joined the reconstruction committee to pursue a new form of educational space, with the preservation of the wooden schoolhouse as the central theme.

In this project, we restored the exterior, which can be described as a mental landscape for local residents, and reused some of the structural and decorative materials from the old building. Through this, the atmosphere that allows graduates to recall their childhood days has been preserved.

Furthermore, we created an environment where children can learn and play in various parts of the school, and where local residents can be involved in the educational setting. As a result, we have realized the ideal form of an elementary school as the core of the community. This is the achievement derived from the integration of the "hardware" of regenerative preservation and the "software" of citizen participation.

A time capsule buried by citizens to commemorate the completion of the new school building is scheduled to be unearthed in 2029, 30 years after the reconstruction. Along with the thoughts contained within it, the weight of this school's history will continue to be passed down.