Student Work
1∕10
Title
BLDG: Pray to Play
Project Description
From underground izakayas to capsule hostels, Tokyo is a bustling metropolis full of hidden surprises. Nonetheless, it remains a city of all kinds of faiths and desires—the final project of Core 1 studio, as a conceptual extension of the mid-term project Plan Unplanned, proposes a pachinko arcade disguised as a church located on the high-end shopping street of Omotesando in the chic Aoyama area.
In this hybrid BLDG, a worshiper and a gam(bl)er would move through a series of small rooms and perform corresponding activities while unaware of the existence of each other. Except for the “valves”—those are the spaces where the surprises of peek-a-boo and chance encounters happen. Like the black and white squares on a checkerboard, in this BLDG praying and playing are intersected in a dramatic way, which seems to be a metaphor for the fun and absurdity of urban life.