Architecture x Fabrics Interview: Part 2, Yasuyuki Unemori Architects

It has been six years since Mr. Unemori opened his office, and he is currently working on projects ranging from small houses of 50 square meters to public facilities of over 10,000 square meters.
For this interview, we were invited to "Sukagawa Shimin Koryu Center tette" in Fukushima Prefecture, which was designed by Mr. Unemori and completed in the summer of 2018.
The first thing that surprised me when I visited the facility was its liberating atmosphere and the fact that the people were so spontaneous that I did not feel like I was in a public facility. The first floor of the facility is truly the main street of the city. Children are playing, junior high school students in their school uniforms are happily talking and studying on their way home from school, and meetings are being held nearby. For the elderly, it is a safe place to walk and exercise.
In fact, this complex was created as a reconstruction project after the Great East Japan Earthquake. I was convinced that the plan was to revitalize the city and revitalize citizen interaction by creating a multifunctional place for activities such as a library, childcare support, and art museum in the center of the city.
The "curtains" were in harmony with the building in a natural way.
Unemori used fabrics as a soft presence to bridge the gap between the hard building and the people. The curtains could be used everywhere in the public facility, which had strict requirements, because they had a high level of functionality and could combine multiple functions.
Transparent, sound-absorbing fabrics provide safety in the event of an emergency. Glare- and heat-resistant fabrics, despite their transparency, prevent library books from fading and reduce the running costs of thermal protection effects. The flame-retardant, light-retardant fabric provides fire protection, light control, and optimized acoustics in a liberating, ceiling-height seminar space.
Mr. Unemori patiently held discussions with the public and other concerned parties to gain their trust and create this facility.
Just imagining how this facility will interact with the people of the city and their lives in 10 or 20 years' time
I hope you will enjoy the interview with Mr. Unemori.
We hope you enjoy the interview.