Moka, Tochigi, Japan
Blending the surrounding greenery with Japan’s first cutting-edge full-fledged inland thermal power plant, Yutaka Umehara of Takenaka Corporation has designed a visitor’s center located in Moka city, southern part of Tochigi prefecture.
Named Kobelco Power Moka Meline, the project has been awarded a 2023 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture, Design, and Urban Studies.
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 a 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 center boundary, acting as part of the building’s outer wall, this 5-meter sound barrier wall, together with the retaining wall supporting the hills, forms the exhibition center, while leniently adapting to the surrounding environment.
Project: Kobelco Power Moka Meline
Architects: Takenaka Corporation
Lead Architect: Yutaka Umehara
General Contractor: Takenaka Corporation
Client: Kobelco Power Moka
Photographers: Forward Stroke Inc.
