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Kokura Castle and the Periphery

Prize(s) Honorable Mentions
Company MMLD
Lead Designers Miki Matsushita
Completion Date Open in April of 2019
Project Location Japan
Entry Description

Kokura Castle stands as a symbol of Kitakyushu’s history. This area is full of high buildings and lush trees, so we wanted to focus on creating attractive closer views.
The whole area is more than 2,000 square meters, thus, to make the work more efficient and to suggest a proper design, we divided the area into three part.
Firstly, for Kokura Castle, our concept was “castle mirrored in the water”. The castle is surrounded by a moat, and we used this feature to reflect the castle on the surface of the water. We wanted to aim to light up exact places on the castle, so different beam angles from 3° to 50° were used.
Secondly, for the park of the castle, considering visitors’ flow, we put various height lightings. We suggested the original pole light design which was inspired by the traditional Kokura fabric. For the ramparts, the lit-up parts and shadows are sharply distinguished, so that they reveal the charisma of the castle.
Lastly, for History Road, the white walls are emphasized to add elegance to the area. Lighting fixtures were installed at a lower level such as the handrails, so that they cannot be captured when visitors take pictures of Kokura Castle.