On a site just 3.8 metres wide near Kumagaya Station, Ono Architect Office and Sigma Construction have built a three-story wooden pencil building in Japan that connects two streets while housing a vintage store and rental tenants.
The site is a long and narrow plot of 3.8 by 14 metres, linking the 16-metre road in front of Kumagaya Station to a 4-metre road in the residential area behind. The client has been running a second-hand clothing store in the area for many years, so the plan places the store and office on the top floor while renting out the first and second floors. The building also functions as a passage, allowing people to walk through from the station side to the quieter street behind.
The street facing the residential area is lined with small shops and houses, a quiet and attractive environment distinct from the commercial main road. The building incorporates this continuity—the fittings facing the residential side feature sliding doors that can be fully opened on all three floors, connecting each level openly to the city. The adjacent land, currently vacant and used as a flow line for pedestrians, reinforces this reading of architecture as urban infrastructure rather than boundary.
The facade responds to perspective. The hipped roof creates the impression of a simple triangular form during the daytime, while at night the wood-finished ceiling surface of the roof appears as a glowing facade along the main street. To secure the circulation up to the third floor and maximize tenant area on the elongated footprint, a spiral staircase was installed on the main street side and planned as part of the facade design. This creates a setback from the road, a deliberate contrast to the surrounding environment where buildings press right to the boundary line.
Since the site sits in a commercial district with high likelihood of future construction on adjacent land, the short side of the building is composed only of openings while the long side serves as equipment space. Light is guided from outside to inside through finishes and paint that diffuse illumination around the openings of the short side and the stairwell. The quality of light becomes architectural material in a building where every surface must perform.
