Tato Architects / Yo Shimada

Bus stop in Shodoshima

Location / Koumagoe Tonoshocyo Shodogun Kagawa
Bus stop /

Design

Design
Tato Architects/Yo Shimada
Team / Yo Shimada Keita Kurokoshi
Structure/Takashi Manda Structural Design
Team / Takashi Manda

Construction

Uematsu construction co.LTD

Structure

Main Structure, Steel construction

Bus stop in Shodoshima.
The site is a sloping one at the foot of a large statue of the Bodhisattva Kannon, and I positioned a series of linked discs on a horizontal plane hovering above the earth, calibrated to the angle of the sloping ground, and evoking lily pads on a lotus pond.
For people waiting for a bus these could serve as benches, tables, or shade from the sun depending on their needs. There are about 90 linked discs, made of 6mm-thick steel plate with eco-friendly thermal insulation coating, supported by 48 columns, and introducing a series of curving lines on a single plane, like the gold clouds employed as a visual motif in Japanese room partition paintings, into the actual landscape. The columns are made of circular steel rods 30mm in diameter, bundled into groups of three, and anchored by reinforced concrete bases 800mm in diameter.