Obata Clinic by Hayato Komatsu Architects

21 January 2011

Japanese architect Hayato Komatsu has completed the interiors for this clinic in Hiroshima, Japan, which is located within a shopping centre.

Due to the height of the original space, the architect has inserted a gabled ceiling to create a more intimate atmosphere and has left the walls of the treatment rooms slightly shorter, making a feature of the sloping ceiling.

The interior walls and ceiling are clad in strips of wood with an array of fluorescent tube lights on the sloping planes.

The clinic's storefront façade provides passer-by's with clear views into the clinic.

The treatment rooms are located at the rear of the space, carefully partitioned to prevent any direct views into them.

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Here's some more information from the architect:

[O-clinic by Hayato Komatsu Architects]

This project is a plan for moving and reopening an internal clinic in a shopping mall on the outskirts of Hiroshima. The shopping mall has a high ceiling and, therefore, so does the clinic that occupies space within it.

The clinic’s surrounding corridors are bustling with shoppers. The client requested to make good use of the high ceiling. However, keeping the open space increases the risk of heating/cooling and ventilation problems.

So we inclined the ceiling to intonate the height, and we controlled the room space to adjust the volume of the room.

Furthermore, we made all the walls the same height and created space in between the walls and the ceiling like a partition style.

This showed the ceiling as “a big roof” spanning all rooms and so giving the space depth, brightness and a comfortable feeling.

In considering the privacy of people coming into the clinic, we managed, without closing the facade, to arrange each room to allow in light but yet in such a way to stop the direct view of outsiders.