Gallery @ Sanjo, Niigata
Client: KRaft Inc.
Design: Yu Yamada /SNARK Inc.
Construction: Chuo Tochi Inc.
Total area: 79.32m²
Completion: Nov. 2024
Photo: Hajime Morishita

日本有数のものづくりのまちとして知られている新潟県燕三条エリアの伝統技術を発信するギャラリーである。職人に直接学びながら包丁や鉄フライパンを一から造る体験や、e-Bikeで工場や町並みを散策するサイクルツアーなどの本格的なものづくりツアーの発着拠点としても利用される。かつて足袋の物流倉庫として使用されていた市の文化財に指定されている築85年の土蔵の一部を展示空間としてリノベーションした。展示台は蔵に残置されていた木箱や足場板のみで構成し、技術の背景にある歴史の連なりを表現している。広さ900平米を超える全体の建物は今後、「燕三条の技術の継承」を伝える宿泊施設も備えた複合施設として計画中である。

Located in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, this gallery is a showcase of traditional skills from the Tsubame and Sanjo area of Niigata Prefecture, known as one of Japan’s leading manufacturing towns. The gallery is also used as a departure and arrival point for craft manufacturing tours offered by the client, such as a hands-on experience of making kitchen knives and iron frying pans while learning directly from craftspeople, and a cycle tour of the factories and townscape by e-bike. Part of an 85-year-old storehouse that was once used as a distribution warehouse for tabi (split-toed socks) and designated as a cultural asset by the city was renovated as an exhibition space. The display stand is composed entirely of wooden boxes and scaffolding boards left in the warehouse, expressing the historical linkage behind the technology. The entire building, which is over 900 square meters in size, is planned to become a complex facility with lodging to convey the inheritance of Tsubame and Sanjo’s technology in the future.