The complex of a dental clinic and a dentist’s residence, located in the suburbs of Nagano, Japan, in a beautiful farm village surrounded by rice fields and peach orchards, designed by Japanese architect, Hiroki Tanabe.
This dental clinic and a dentist’s residence was built with concrete plate 300 millimeters thick forms zigzag structure, which makes up three shells and two open courtyards. As well as lying in alternate shifts, they face each other across the plate. Each shell has different functions inside, residence, clinic and waiting lounge. In each courtyard two glass boxes are set and used as pathways and entry halls between two adjacent shells.
The exterior and interior are painted white, matching plaster walls of neighboring traditional houses. They stand out against deep blue sky and bright green rice fields turning to shining golden color. In daylight, the zigzag structure shows up and be vividly retained in memories of local residents as well as it blends in with the beautiful landscape.
In the evening, indoor lighting overflows from three glass openings (height 2.6m, width 10m and 3.3m). They become three huge lighting installations. The residence and waiting lounge emit soft lights with low color temperature of incandescent lamps. The clinic inserted into by them emits a gorgeous light with high color temperature of fluorescent lamps. The lighting installations with two kinds of expression are located in a line by turns and contrast with each other. They emerge from darkness, harmonizing with the calm night of beautiful farm village. Via
