Saijo Clinic

A mental health clinic in Tokyo has been designed to resemble traditional Russian matryoshka dolls that stack into one another.

Inside, bold colours give the space a fun, familiar aesthetic that melts the boundary between a treatment field and daily life. Independent volumes are divided by sliding partitions that make it possible to use the spaces in various ways.

‘We proposed a structure as the continuum of simple huts that interlock with each other,’ says architect Tomoro Aida of Aida Atelier.

Completed over only one month of construction, Aida created private and simple environments where not only doctors, but light and colors, can work to improve health.

Photos courtesy Tatsuya Noaki.