PALETTE Workspace for Continuous Employment by A Nomad Sub + nanometer architecture
Name of Company or Individual: A Nomad Sub + nanometer architecture
Country: Japan
Website: http://www.anomadsub.com/
Project Name: PALETTE Workspace for Continuous Employment
Project Completion Date: 9/30/2019
Project Completed City: OSAKA
Architecture Division: Institute & educational
Kansai-Chuo Social Welfare Association PALETTE
Architecture like an urban space where users can find a place to fit In a homogeneous space like an office, about twenty users were engaged in work; some were packing products in boxes at their desks, and some were processing parts for industrial products. One-half of them were working at an open desk, and the other half sat at individual desks with partitions so that no other people came into sight.
Because they felt nervous about the visitors, high screaming came from individual cabins separated by piled up boxes and partitions. It was something I saw in the existing facility on an adjacent section before the design of the employment support facility PALETTE.
PALETTE is a facility for Continuous Employment Type B Support Services for the Disabled, where people with intellectual disabilities engage in manufacturing work that respects each employee’s personality and individuality, not repetitive menial tasks. This facility is equipped with a confectionary factory where users can make amazake (Japanese candy art). A ceramics factory with a full-scale kiln, a printing factory with silk-screen equipment, and an art studio that allows various expressions not limited to paintings, as well as a café, gallery, and shop, to exhibit users’ works. Creative activities in the factories and studios usually take place in a room with a large space from the manageability perspective.
However, depending on the characteristics of the disabilities, some are stressed when in the same space with others like those I met at the existing facility. Therefore, for this facility, we were expected to design a space where each individual user could find a comfortable place to fit in, not a homogeneous space like a Dom-ino Skeleton.
