The commercial, multi-tenant project Zigzag is located where the Akihabara electric district, with its numerous small blocks, interfaces with a major urban redevelopment zone. Our concept, in this area already brimming with commercial energy, was for a retail building that would add texture to the landscape, evoking a futuristic image. Given the existing block planning, we connected two areas by a narrow lane, so that the diverse tenants' activities and the products sold shape the structure's facade. This recreates the atmosphere of an old-fashioned shopping arcade and attracts people.
Diagonal columns brace the structure's frame, controlling stress and deformation. Narrower steel columns are designed both to enhance the interior-exterior connection, and allow more freedom in structure and layout.