The Parable of Dense Wooden Shack Settlements: An Archive Building that Narrates Past Through Design | Architecture Thesis

Site Context

This project proposes architecture that tells a story by embodying and narrating the history of its site. Located in the Kinoshita River area of Sumida Ward, Tokyo, the site holds personal significance, having once been a place for running along the riverbank during club activities. Historically, the area played a crucial role in the pigskin industry but also carries a darker legacy of impurity and societal rejection. Today, efforts by the government seek to erase this past, leaving younger generations unaware of its significance. Though now a residential neighborhood, an undeniable darkness lingers—a realization that, upon adulthood, evokes emotions of fear, sadness, and emptiness.

This project transforms that historical weight into a narrative experience, treating it as part of the past rather than something erased by the present. It proposes an archive building with a “narrative function,” much like a theater, that goes beyond simply displaying historical materials to actively tell a story through design.

Traditionally, architecture has conveyed its purpose through stylistic choices. However, in the modern era, conventional styles alone no longer effectively communicate a story. This proposal, therefore, continually examines design and its experiential qualities, focusing on the universal “power of narration.”

Design Process

The design process begins by establishing the building’s height, as a tall structure fosters urban connections and serves as a spatial focal point. Its elevated form provides new perspectives on the city, offering a deeper understanding of its density and future developments from multiple vantage points.

By intentionally “misreading” and “emphasizing” the essence of the area, the design references the corrugated iron found in local factory buildings, embedding accumulated memories within the space. Rooted in intuition rather than logic, it expresses the city’s raw, primal energy. The tower integrates surrounding alleys, generating new urban axes and unifying the fragmented cityscape.

A double-helix structure immerses visitors in the city’s narrative. One path descends from above, gradually revealing shifting urban perspectives, while the other ascends through alley-like passages into a vast void. This layered spatial experience, reminiscent of ukiyo-e, introduces distortions in scale, compressing and expanding space to create a dynamic urban re-experience.

Final Outcome

The tower’s form integrates the multi-directional axes of the area’s dense wooden structures, while its segmented spaces reflect the region’s small-scale urban fabric. Surrounding alleys are woven into the design in three dimensions, generating new spatial axes that reorganize the city’s fragmented landscape into a cohesive architectural elevation. This synthesis of memory creates a new urban narrative.

The building’s circulation is structured around a double-helix form, offering two distinct spatial experiences. One involves descending from the top after taking an elevator, gradually revealing fragmented urban landscapes from an objective viewpoint. The other involves ascending through alley-like pathways, leading to a large void below. This spatial configuration echoes ukiyo-e aesthetics, where multiple perspectives exist simultaneously. The distorted sense of distance and the interplay of expanding and contracting spaces create a dynamic, immersive urban re-experience. These overlapping pathways introduce chaotic yet structured spatial interactions, forming voids that fragment and reassemble the urban experience, making the city itself feel like an unfolding landscape.

At the heart of the building, the core acts as a mediator, anchoring the surrounding spaces while remaining visible from all points within the structure. However, it does not bear the full structural load, blurring the boundary between functional necessity and architectural expression. The materials, chosen for their accessibility, contribute to an ambiguous structure where it becomes difficult to distinguish true support from protective elements, evoking a “barrack-like” atmosphere of impermanence and irony.

This deliberate architectural “betrayal” reverses traditional logic, creating a layered experience where the building’s surface serves as both representation and contradiction. The core itself becomes a singular ray of light, spiraling through the dense, chaotic spatial configuration, facilitating airflow while offering a vertical axis of continuity.

The interplay of fragmented perspectives and spatial dissonance culminates in a theater of memory—a space where the lost industry and its historical landscape are resurrected in a new form. The building does not merely serve as an archive—it actively engages memory as a living, evolving entity. It remains a part of each visitor’s individual story, embedding itself in their personal landscape.

The spatial organization gradually shifts from open movement to intimate reflection. The first floor serves as a large, unrestricted public space, fostering social interaction. From the second floor onward, smaller, enclosed areas emerge, offering spaces for quiet contemplation. Variations in cross-sections, structural angles, and spatial density create distinct zones that echo the area’s historical “barrack-like” aesthetic. These architectural interventions embody the chaotic yet continuous unfolding of history, allowing diverse elements to coexist within a single cohesive framework. The violent spatial shifts and shifting city perspectives reinforce the presence of what once existed here.

Conclusion: Through this architectural intervention, the memory of the lost industry and its erased history is revived. This building does not merely serve as an archive—it actively engages memory as a living, evolving entity. It remains a part of each visitor’s individual story, embedding itself in their personal landscape. As a daily presence in the cityscape, the tower is expected to communicate the site’s history, narrating its past to future generations. In doing so, it becomes not just a structure, but a storytelling monument, continuously shaping and being shaped by the collective recognition of its viewers.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]