DESA1002 'Continuous City' Li Vern Lim

Abstract

My building is an Otaku Centre called “オタク天国” which literally means Otaku Heaven. “Otaku” is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga and video games. My design caters to the special interests of the mild and also the extreme otaku. The building has anime/manga merchandise stores, cosplay cafes, figure exhibition spaces and a real-life battle simulation maze. The top floor consists of working spaces for anime and game producers. The top floor is a working area. Thus, it was made to look more mechanical. Vertical slits were used as windows, making it look slightly resemble robot (mecha) parts. The ground floor design was meant to look fun and inviting. The design was inspired by the fact that anime is a type of film industry. The walls were made to look like film wrapping around the columns. The film reel acts as the entrance to symbolize the beginning of a journey once one steps through the “reel”. The underground floor was meant for the more extreme otaku. It was designed to look like a huge underground cavern found in many sci-fi anime. It would make people feel as if they have been transported into the anime dimension. Circulation; basically, there are 2 ways to get to each floor; 1) Lifts – for the disabled 2) Stairs – in case the lifts are not working There are 2 entrance points into the building. Workers would enter from the front entrance, which is facing the main road, and go straight up using the lift or stairs. Milder otaku would also enter through the front entrance. The more extreme otaku would choose to go through an alleyway behind the building and enter a lift which would bring them down right into the underground floor where all the hardcore stuff is happening. There is a lift on the ground floor and a ramp along the curvy walls that lead right into the exhibition space.