Day Service Center Kawazoe Seiryuen
A spacious one-storey senior’s day care service center uniquely designed using wood construction featuring a large, curved roof is under construction in Oita City, Oita Prefecture. The facility will look after and support fifty-seven elderly persons in the community that it is being built. The 1,020 m² two-by-four fireproof structure and the impressive roof was realized and designed with structural engineered bowstring nail plate trusses that free span the building’s width of 17.44 m. The building is estimated to consume just over 180 m³ of structural wood products including SPF dimension lumber in its construction. The facility will be owned and operated by Social Welfare Corporation Seiryuen, was designed by Yoshitaka Architects Engineers & Consultants, and the general contractor for the project is Morita Kensetsu. The wooden structural components were supplied and constructed by Wing, the nail plate roof trusses were designed and supplied by Prime Truss, and the building was engineered by Azusagawa Sekkei.
As COFI / Canada Wood has developed a strong working relationship with the building’s owner and designer over the years, we were able to organize a seminar and construction site tour of this project on May 16, 2024, which had twenty-one design and construction professionals from ten different companies in attendance. At the beginning of the tour the architect gave an over overview of the project and outlined the advantages for constructing these types of building with two-by-four construction and nail plate trusses. During the tour, the on-site construction manager stated, “By erecting this wood structure using prefabricated roof trusses shortened the construction time by two weeks”, a welcomed benefit given the construction labor shortage that builders and contractors are currently facing in Japan. This was a real eyeopener for those attending this seminar.
