Cleantopia Marugame: An Environment Conscious Garbage Plant Marugame-shi, Kagawa, Japan Architect: Fujita Corporation, Ebara Corporation Construction Completed: March 1997		2001 IDA / Award for Quality Lighting Design
photo (C) MURAZUMI, Souichi. The building is a garbage burning plant in Marugame City near the Setouchi Inland Sea. With strong consciousness to environmental preservation, the whole site is designed to serve as a green park. Considering its location with rich natural environment, the lighting designer needed to talk with not only the architect but also experts of various fields, such as gardening plan, color coordination, construction materials, and sign design. The aim of such a conversation was the unison with the nature. In order to harmonize the building with the surrounding landscape, the architect put a number of small openings on the exterior wall, and the lighting designer took full advantage of such leaks of light so as to connect the inside of the building with the outside. At night, each beam of light emitted through the glass wall from the incinerator or the control room makes outside people conscious of the continuous operation of the plant. The chimney casts out its inside glow around the building with a slit like a lighthouse on the Setouchi sea. The oppressive impression isolated from its environment, which is often the case with this kind of plant, has been wiped out with such efforts. United with the surrounding nature, the plant now contributes the beautiful landscape of the area, and in itself symbolizes the idea of harmonious co-existence with the environment. Copyright © 1999-2013 Reiko Chikada Lighting Design Inc. All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified.		13 Cleantopia Marugame: An Environment Conscious Garbage Plant 1996-1998 project list RAY index