Tasteful "renovations"

I am Yoshida, president of Yamada Shusei Ltd., a professional apparel garment repair group in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture.

On January 10, I had a site meeting with Yoriito design and construction staff. During the meeting, the designer explained to me about the bare concrete ceiling, and I realized once again that I was glad to have renovated the building instead of building a new one.

The Takashimaya Kyoto Store, a masterpiece of reinforced concrete construction, was completed in 1912. Later, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 is said to have popularized the use of reinforced concrete construction, as it was found to be superior.

The formwork material has also undergone a transition, and before 1970, when the current mainstream panelboard was widely used, wooden fixed-length panels were used. Incidentally, the formwork marks vary from place to place, even within the same Yoriito. According to the designer's explanation, the rectangle in the center of the formwork marks on the first floor of Yoriito's ceiling in the image below is a hole through which materials were raised to the floor above, and the hole was closed at the end of the construction process.

The bare formwork marks not only give the building a retro feel, but also tell us about the history of Yoriito, and symbolize Yoriito's vision of utilizing the existence value of people and things, which makes me feel even more attached to the building.