宇目町役場庁舎の再生プロジェクトは、時の町長が旧庁舎隣接地にあるグリーンセンター（林業研修宿泊施設）を新庁舎に改築することを選挙公約として当選したことから始まった。当選後、平成９年７月に実施されたコンペにより弊社が設計者に選定された。

既存建物は築２４年が経過しており、町の分館的な扱いで一部しか利用されていなかった。南面が山に接しており閉鎖的なため、じめじめとした暗いイメージであった。トトロの町として有名なこの町の顔として明るい庁舎に再生するため、もっとも町民による利用率の高いエントランスホールと、町民ホールの増築に予算を集中させることにした。また、既存建物は新潟地震以前に設計されたため、現行の耐震基準には全く達しなかった。そのため、鉄骨ブレース一部コンクリート壁により耐震性能の向上を図り、現行法規のレベルまで耐震強度を引き上げた。さらに研修宿泊施設から事務施設への用途変更による積載荷重の変更に伴い、既存建物の軽量化を図る必要があった。限られた予算の中でこれら全ての対応を可能にするため、古い建物にありがちな使われていないスペースを有効活用し、増築面積を最小限にとどめた。結果として、同規模の町村の新築庁舎と比べて約半分の予算で完成することができた。

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Ume town hall "Refining" project started from the mayer's promise of conversion of Green center（accommodation facility for forestry workers）into new town hall next to the present city hall. After the mayer's election, I won the design competition in 1997. 

The existing building was 24 years old and it was partially used and it is like a branch of the main hall. The south side of this ordinary building was shady and wet by the forest next to the building. I would like to make the building a symbol that is right for Ume town called "town of Totoro"（Totoro is a character from the animation movie by Hayao Miyazaki）. I decided to use much amount of cost for the places where citizens use frequently such as main entrance, for and the extension construction to change its images. 

The existing building was built before the Niigata earthquake, therefore, it does not reach today's seismic resistance standard. We use steel braces and concrete walls partially to satisfy the standard.  Moreover, there was change of intended usage from accommodation into office. It means a change of the lived load, so that we needed to reduce its total building weights. To solute within its limited construction cost, we have to re-check all room's areas to clarify wasted and turn them into storage spaces. Consequently, we finished the construction by 480,000 yen par a building area and that is approximately a half of newly construction by comparison to city halls in similar local cites. We can call simply as "an extension and reconstruction", however, we reused the skeleton bodies in different from the other construction. In general, people decide to costly newly construction（so-called, scrap and build）by looking at just where we can see easily such as old electricity, old air conditioning equipments, and cracks in finishings of the building. On the other hand, local government's finances are stringency and there is no solutions any more. At the same time, we think that if we simply repeated scrap and build, we will lack the depth of Japanese architectural culture. We hope this "Refining" project of Ume town hall is not just a way of refurbishment but also becoming one of opportunities to think about cities and architectures.