Billiard Hall and House, Nagoya, Japan

Billiard Hall and House is a student facility for billiard playing and other recreation facilities near to the local university. Located in a traditional Japanese street, where owners live above their commercial premises, the clients wished to preserve their long family tradition of providing a safe haven for students and where their parents could make contact.

The site had featured a small one-storey family owned billiard hall for a number of years, within a rundown shopping area. However, it was well loved by the local community, functioning as an impromptu meeting place, and the client was determined that the proposal would keep these qualities. Therefore the building addresses the opportunity of an infill site and small-scale urbanism by establishing a series of apartments stacked upon a new billiard room. The billiard room is then stepped towards the back of the site, allowing passers-by to see within, and allow the building to connect with the street, creating an ‘urban room’ that enlivens the locality through its sense of activity.