The Ikeuchi Gate Building is an ultra-modern new commercial building in the heart of Sapporo, the largest city on the Japanese island of Hokkaido with a population of almost two million.
The client commissioned Toyo Ito, one of Japan's greatest and most influential architects, to design the new headquarters of the Ikeuchi Group in Sapporo. His design for the multifunctional commercial building presents a glazed cube supported by leaf-like reinforced concrete columns.
Kai Nakamura
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The upper floors house the headquarters of the Ikeuchi Group, which is involved in the planning, development and sale of technologies and products in the field of building equipment and communication.
Smart technologies for the new building
Architect Toyo Ito designed an earthquake-proof structure made of tulip-shaped reinforced concrete columns. Wider in the centre and becoming narrower towards the base and top, they support the glazed storeys. The sculptural leaf supports allow for column-free and flexible spaces and ensure sufficient storey heights.
This means that different room uses are possible on each floor. The columns, arranged as upright "V's", give the facade an organic character; they are reminiscent of leaf-shaped structures that sprout from the earth and strive powerfully upwards.
High quality and logistical requirements
The aluminium window elements also include many special shapes resulting from the irregular shapes of the leaf supports. As the required insulating glass elements had to fulfil extremely high quality and logistical requirements, the Austrian glass specialist and ClimaPlusSecurit partner vandaglas Eckelt was commissioned with the production.
Kai Nakamura
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Eckelt produced a total of 370 window elements with a total area of 1280 square metres, which were shipped to Japan, where they were implemented in a highly thermally insulated window construction.
Maximum thermal efficiency
Triple insulating glass made of toughened high-performance Eclaz One II glass was chosen, plus a thermal insulation coating from the latest Saint-Gobain generation. The silicone edge seal was reinforced to fulfil the high static requirements.
The warm edge spacers from Swisspacer Ultimate in black ensure maximum thermal efficiency and the desired aesthetic appearance. Their matt surface prevents reflections and blends harmoniously into the appearance of the windows with their delicate, black aluminium profiles.
