Tomiya City Library And Complex Facilities
ユートミヤ
| Architect | NASCA+Haryu Wood Studio JV |
|---|---|
| Usage | Library・child-rearing support facility・café・ retail shops |
| Structure | RC+S |
| Size | 2F |
| Site area | 13,418.18㎡ |
| Area | 3,230.22㎡ |
| Completion | 2026.02 |
Tomiya City is a suburban municipality situated on the hilly terrain north of the Sendai metropolitan area. With an average age of 43, a homeownership rate of 83%, and one of the few growing populations in Miyagi Prefecture, Tomiya aspires to become “the most desirable city to live in Japan.” As the new towns developed during the 1980s and 1990s entered a mature phase, there emerged a need for places where residents could gather, engage in activities, and cultivate a sense of belonging to their community. Since the city's incorporation in 2016, plans for a long-awaited public library have steadily progressed.Against the backdrop of Tomiya’s city branding as a “town of sweets” and growing demand for child-rearing support, this project was conceived as a multi-functional public facility combining a library, a sweets station, and an indoor children's play facility within the site of an existing community center. The guiding principle of the 2022 design competition described the project as “a civic plaza of knowledge, created by citizens, for citizens, to shape the future.”
Rather than treating the building as a simple collection of functions, we proposed it as a civic hub seamlessly connected to the adjacent community center through a series of engawa-like intermediary spaces. Open to everyday life, it serves as a place where people of all generations can casually stop by, spend time as they wish, and share activities with one another—a “Living Room for Tomiya.”In recent years, particularly in Northern Europe, libraries have increasingly been conceived as “urban living rooms.” Inspired by this idea, we positioned staying and dwelling as the central value of the facility under the concept of the “Tomiya Living Room.”In contemporary cities, many places where people can freely spend time are dependent on commercial activity. Here, however, we sought to create a public space where one's presence is welcomed even without consumption. Visitors may spend time quietly, immerse themselves in the liveliness of others, or simply be. This freedom lies at the heart of the “Tomiya Living Room.”Organized around the Book Slope and the Media Lounge, the building forms a plaza-like environment in which library functions, sweets-related activities, and children's play areas are intentionally interwoven—creating a condition of “Library Everywhere,” “Sweets Everywhere,” and “Play Everywhere.” Diverse activities overlap both horizontally and vertically, allowing people to sense one another's presence and share the same environment. In this way, staying evolves into coexistence.As people return repeatedly and accumulate their own experiences of the place, attachment to the public realm and a sense of belonging to the community gradually emerge. The project envisions a new model of public space—one deeply embedded in everyday life.Throughout the design process, a series of citizen workshops revealed the enthusiasm of residents who embraced and amplified our ideas as their own, as well as the openness, trust, and determination of the local government that supported them. We hope that the citizens who had eagerly awaited its completion will continue to love this building, use it freely and creatively, and allow it to flourish as a vibrant civic commons of knowledge.Two months after opening, the facility has already begun to function as the “Tomiya Living Room.” The sound of dishes clinking in the café drifts through the space, while the voices of children echo through the atrium. Some people read, some study, some meet friends, and some simply spend time there. Each shares the same space while remaining aware of the presence of others.At a time when digitalization increasingly isolates individuals within their own information environments, the value of encountering others by chance and inhabiting the same physical place seems more important than ever. After 8 p.m., the plaza that embraced the bustle of the day gradually transforms into a tranquil library. Its quiet atmosphere holds the lingering traces of daily activity. Nurtured by the lives and actions of its users, this place is slowly becoming an integral part of everyday life in Tomiya.
Photos: Asakawa Satoshi