GIKEN LTD. (CEO: Akio Kitamura) has completed construction of an “ECO Park” facility for the Kochi City-based OTEPIA library complex. The “ECO Park”, an earthquake-resistant underground parking structure, was ordered by the Kochi prefectural government.
The development of the OTEPIA complex, to open on July 24th, has been overseen jointly by the Kochi City municipal government and the Kochi prefectural government. It is a fusion of three facilities: the OTEPIA Kochi Library, itself a fusion of the Kochi Prefectural Library and the Kochi City Public Library’s main building, the OTEPIA Kochi Talking Book & Braille Library, and the Kochi MIRAI Science Center.
Giken, itself also based in the city of Kochi, will provide parking for sixty of OTEPIA’s hundred vehicle spaces through its newly-constructed “ECO Park” facility. Thanks to Giken’s unique Press-in technology, the cylindrical “ECO Park” stores parked vehicles underground whilst limiting its aboveground footprint. This is in line with the structure’s design concept – “Culture Aboveground, Function Underground.”
The first “ECO Park” was established at Giken’s headquarters in Kochi City in 1994, with two more installed in a commercial building in Tokyo’s Minato Ward in 2003. The installation of the OTEPIA “ECO Park” marks its first use at a public facility, and its inclusion in such a large-scale project of public interest is not only expected to provide significant convenience benefits to a large number of users, but also to increase public exposure to Giken and its “ECO Park” facility, leading to bolstered brand awareness.
At the unveiling ceremony on June 16th, CEO Kitamura expressed his hopes for greater adoption of the “ECO Park” and its technology: “Street parking presents a serious and profound issue for the world’s major cities, and an enormous market for our technology. I hope that our installation at OTEPIA will help propel that technology onto the world stage.”
■OTEPIA “ECO Park” Specifications
1. Vehicle Capacity：60
2. Vehicle Delivery Time：30 Seconds Maximum
3. Structural Composition：A cylindrical Implant Structure comprised of a series of 55 tubular piles, one meter in diameter and twenty meters in length each, pressed-in in a circle. The piles form both the foundation and the frame.
