SIT Techno Plaza IV is a fab lab created with glass and LVL blocks in the first-floor lobby of the Toyosu Campus of Shibaura Institute of Technology, where equipment such as laser cutters and 3D printers are lined up.

We wanted to create both a good view of the students' work from inside and outside of the building, and an attractive space to showcase the work in progress, which can easily become cluttered.

This space, with a total floor area of about 150 m2, is cut off from the lobby of the existing school building by a partition that supports a light, central axial structure with a wooden frame construction and an east-west earthquake-resistant structural core of the world's first "glass-glazed wicker fold" structure, designed by Jun Sato for the structure.

The structure consists of three double-strength glass elements of approximately 1,000 mm wide and 450 mm high, joined with epoxy resin to groove-carved LVL blocks at the upper and lower points.

The floor is connected to the existing frame only, and by sandwiching the central wooden frame from both sides, it bears the seismic forces acting on the frame from both sides.

The challenge was to make the structure work by applying force in the direction of the small opening, as plate glass is generally subjected to out-of-plane forces, mainly due to wind pressure.

The complex reflections of the glass, which is folded and bent, and the presence of the LVL blocks overlap with the fabrication scenery of the fab lab, creating an effect that is both immediate and differentiated.