About the Plaza

Plaza of Kanagawa Institute of Technology covers as much as 4,100 square meters. The large plaza has gentle slopes and a ceiling with skylights. It looks like undulating hills, and surprisingly, the ceiling has no pillars to block the view, as if it were floating; no glass is set in the windows. When it is fine, you can see light and shade changing as time passes, on a rainy day, a refreshing shower falls into the space. You are welcome to sit or lie on the ground wherever you are in the plaza and to spend your free time as you wish. Once you stay there, you will relax and enjoy yourselves to your hearts’ content. The open space in the facility encourages you to lose yourselves in your own thoughts, and what is more, the construction that gives a sense of spaciousness will lead you to come up with a new idea and to create something new. Since the plaza is not built for a specific purpose, students could act freely on the stage with their unique ways of thinking.

Size

The Plaza, which has three entrances, measures about 82 meters from north to south and about 55 meters from east to west; its floor space is 4,100 square meters.

Ceiling/Roof

The ceiling measures 2.2 to 2.8 meters high, and 59 openings are installed in it, each of which is a square 1.8 to 3 meters on each side. The roof is made of 12-millimeter-thick iron plates, which were welded together on the spot. Furthermore, the iron plates are covered with water-permeable asphalt of some 30 millimeters, reducing wind pressure, resisting against earthquakes, and working as a heat insulator. No pillars exist inside the facility; instead, exterior steal walls and foundations composed of 83 piles and 54 ground anchors support all the roof plates of about 558 tons. The height up to the ceiling change by approximately 20 centimeters owing to thermal contraction of those plates.

Floor

In addition to the roof, the floor with gentle slopes, where the difference in level is up to 5 meters from its highest to lowest point, is carpeted with water-permeable asphalt. Rainwater is soon absorbed and drained through the floor; therefore, the floor is always kept dry.

Data

Notice

Feel free to use tables, cushions, and yoga mats kept in the Plaza. In leaving, sterilize and put them back where they were.
For the present, eating and drinking is not allowed in order to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

■The following dangerous behaviors, conducts, or actions are strictly prohibited

• Skateboarding and roller skating
• Climbing up to the roof
• Use of fire

■Refrain from the following so as not to bother others in the facility

• Making much noise
• Playing loud music
• Occupying too much space