It is the station of Astram, the longest Automated Guideway Transit system in Japan. Most Japanese AGTs are operated on the railway built on the base columns like monorails. Astram is also operated mainly on such railway but it is unique because it has a section operated underground like a subway. Shin-Shiroshima station is located at the crossing junction of three different transportation.
One is thd national route 57 and another is Astram that goes under the road. And the third one is JR line that cross over the route 57.
To connect Astram and JR line, the unique station was desined like a tunnel parallel with the route 57.
To avoide rainfalls and the sunshines, the roof is inserted into the tunnel. The roof is planted with green lawns and the tunnel is equipped with top light windows. It is so-called sustainable design.
I was very impressed with the station.
Honestly, I was rushed into transferring from Amstam to JR line to go to Miyajima, the World Heritage site. But I changed my mind to take the next train to observe the station carefully.
I thought it was a kind of serendipity after I found that it was designed by Coelacanth and Associates. That architectural design office was one of the first what I got known when I was a high school student. I had a dream to be an architect at that moment. I visited my friend in Makuhari city which was the latest dormitory suburb with international convention centers at that period in Chiba prefecture. My friend introduced the elementary school of his neighborhood because of its cool design. I was very impressed with the design and I searched whose work it was. That was Kazuhiro Kojima who lead Coelacanth and Associates. He won the anual prize of Architectural institute of Japan with that work that year.
I have forgotten him and have not focused on his work since I graduated from university, but recently I learned he passed away a few years ago through introduction articles of completion of his works on architectural magazines.
Writing about him here, I learned he also planed Shibuya Stream or the complex building in Tokyo. Sometime in winter last year, I happened to go into the building for my business and I felt it was different from what we planned in other areas in Tokyo. In a nutshell, the common areas of the building are planned outdoor. I noticed that the common spaces in Shibuya Stream were very cold but comfortable like a back alley. It successfully made flows of passers-by from Shibuya station like a stream, literally.
Shin-shiroshima station reminded me of Shibuya Stream in terms of comfort of intermediate between inside and outside.
It was my birthday yesterday and a selendipity with the work of Coelacanth and Associates was the greatest birthday present to me.
LOVE LIFE in Tokyo 