Project Name: Dandan PARK

Location: Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan

Design Team: Yano Aoyama Architecture Design

Total Floor Area: 5,386.52 m²

Completion: 2023

Photography: Kimio Nishikawa

Design Features:

Project Dandan PARK, designed by Yano Aoyama Architecture Design, stands as a masterful expression of how thoughtful architecture can harmonize with automotive industry environmental changes while creating distinct public spatial experiences, situated along Airport Street in Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan. This 5,386.52-square-meter multifunctional building exemplifies the perfect balance between innovative mixed-use strategy and regionally responsive terraced morphology, redefining spatial possibilities for automobile dealership architecture.

The project's most compelling design achievement lies in its intelligent mixed-use programmatic arrangement strategy. Rather than following conventional automobile showroom wisdom, the design integrates restaurant, multipurpose hall, children's play area, and co-working spaces alongside automobile showroom and service facilities. This diverse programmatic mix creates synergistic effects that attract broader audiences, transforming private commercial space into genuine public gathering places. The result is a building that feels simultaneously commercially viable and community-engaged, where the most frequently used spaces guarantee the best outdoor environments and establish a privileged relationship with the urban landscape.

The architectural narrative unfolds through sophisticated terraced morphology, demonstrating remarkable regional cultural responsiveness. Five offset boxes stack upward in cascading composition, referencing Ehime Prefecture's iconic mikan orchard terraced landscapes. These boxes are composed through slender steel columns and beams integrated with steel sashes, with seismic forces handled by steel frame structure behind. The gradually setback volumes create generous outdoor terraces, forming park-like spaces that reinforce the building's dialogue with its natural surroundings. The exposed ribbed steel structure transforms the quasi-industrial district's site characteristics and automotive industrial product attributes into design expression.

The choice of materials demonstrates innovative construction pragmatism and environmental stewardship refinement. The central hall facade innovatively uses CLT (cross-laminated timber) shear walls bolted to steel columns, transforming seismic elements into design accents that add color to the facility, acquiring aesthetic value beyond its structural dimension. The terraces connect via staircases and feature plantings grown from acorns collected by local schoolchildren from the preserved forests around Matsuyama Castle. This manipulation not only enhances compositional legibility but embeds community participation and environmental stewardship into the project's core, reinforcing the volumetric independence and regional connection of each level.

The façade treatment demonstrates the refinement of strategic spatial organization. The building's terraced morphology gradually setbacks volumes by level with greening, creating favorable urban landscape and enhancing circulation. "Dandan" means "thank you" in the local dialect, embodying the intention to create indoor and outdoor spaces that give back to the region. "PARK" contains dual meanings of parking lot and park, with terraces on each floor created not only as park-like spaces but also planned with ramps enabling vehicles to reach terraces directly, expanding the venue's vitality and usage breadth.

The project's defining feature is its creative integration of programmatic proposals and high-quality building practices. Through positioning dining spaces near the road while surrounded by greening to create atmosphere, locating children's play area on the third-floor pilotis level requiring no vibration consideration to lower floors and clearly visible from the front road, and arranging co-working space facing the rooftop display area, the overall arrangement achieves coexistence and synergistic effects of each function through thoughtful disposition and design under acoustic environment control. A large stepped hall connects the first-floor main showroom with the second-floor motorsports area, functioning daily as both circulation and dwelling space, transforming into audience seating during events, equipped with tiered seating, movable tables, shelving, and video distribution equipment. Dandan PARK proves that thoughtful design can transform industry transformation challenges into architectural opportunities, creating public architecture responsive to environmental changes and community needs without sacrificing spatial quality, constructional clarity, or user comfort.

Design Team Yano Aoyama Architecture Design, established and led by Toshihiro Yano and Eriko Aoyama in 2013, has distinguished itself as a leading architectural practice renowned for comprehensive design methodology and regional revitalization contribution. Incorporated in 2018, the firm is based in Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan with a branch office in Tokyo, and has evolved into a comprehensive design firm offering full-service including architectural design, construction supervision, workshops, interior design, furniture design, and planning.

Under the creative direction of Toshihiro Yano and Eriko Aoyama, the firm leads a dynamic multidisciplinary team including architects Toshihiro Yano, Eriko Aoyama, and Rin Nishiyama serving as lead architects for Dandan PARK. Toshihiro Yano, as founding partner, holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Engineering and a Master's degree in Architecture from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering, worked at Arui Chiaki Urban and Architecture Design from 2006 to 2013, served as Project Research Associate at the University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science from 2015 to 2017, and assumed the position of Associate Professor at Ehime University in 2025. Eriko Aoyama holds a degree in Architecture from Nihon University College of Art Department of Design and worked at firms including Nakamura Takanori Architectural Design Office. Their collaborative approach balances the personalized attention of a boutique office with the operational efficiency of a comprehensive firm.

The firm's design philosophy centers on creating architectural places responsive to environment and community, combining architectural planning with programmatic proposals. Their design methodology prioritizes dual integration of hardware and software, generating synergistic effects through mixed-use programming to create privately-led public spaces. Architecture and landscape merge seamlessly, while regional characteristics serve to enhance spatial identity. Meticulous attention to detail and participatory design become the defining characteristics of each project. Yano Aoyama Architecture Design's professional rigor distances their work from mere functionalism, instead pursuing sustainable designs grounded in the fundamental belief that built environment directly shapes community experience and promotes regional revitalization.

Yano Aoyama Architecture Design, as a full-service architectural practice, demonstrates proficiency across diverse typologies, offering architectural design, construction supervision, workshop facilitation, interior design, furniture design, and planning services. What began as a studio focused on regional architectural projects has evolved into a comprehensive design firm. The portfolio reflects an unwavering commitment to regional contribution, consistently delivering projects that balance innovation with pragmatism, spatial quality with user comfort. This approach has garnered significant recognition, including Excellence Award for Kamaishi Civic Hall Design Proposal in 2014, Grand Prize for Ehime Dental Association Building Design Proposal in 2019, Grand Prize for Ikata Town Health Exchange Facility Kamegaike Onsen Design Proposal in 2022, Grand Prize for the 76th National Tree Planting Festival Imperial Pavilion in 2024, Good Design Award Best 100 for Kamegaike Onsen in 2024, and Good Design Award and Matsuyama Landscape Grand Prize for Dandan PARK in 2024. As of 2025, following Toshihiro Yano's appointment as Associate Professor at Ehime University, with Eriko Aoyama assuming the role of principal, Yano Aoyama Architecture Design maintains its foundational principles of community engagement, environmental responsiveness, and meaningful architecture while advancing regional architecture toward innovation.