This is apartment renovation project which is 83㎡ for parents and two kids. In this project we piled up locally grown cedar solid woods to make kitchen unit and kids loft unit. Around this units kids can go round now, and in the future it can be divided into 2 kids’ rooms and living room. As this room is on the 10th floor of the apartment building, we had to lift up 4㎥ rafter woods by EV, so we cut all timbers short to put on EV. And we designed just how to pile up 60×45 rafter woods to make shelf or kids lofts.
There are also many C.psifera wood in Saitama, so we line up these woods and tack with wood cement board by nails behind to make walls.
Putting student activities on display to encourage diverse use of space
LC8 (Learning Commons Hachioji) is an on-campus “third place” for students at Kogakuin University. Located on the first through fourth floors of the new Building 2 at the Hachioji Campus, the space was conceived in the campus general plan as a new kind of learning site for gathering and engaging in discussion outside of the classroom. This “learning commons” combines the functions of library, learning support center, and student hall typically found at any university, also goes beyond these conventional functions to provide flexible shared space that gives rise to a diversity of student activities.
This house is rebuilt of old sub house, standing beside main house, wrapped big Japanese garden in Tokyo downtown area. To rebuild it, as we needed to demolish the old house and Oya stone fence, we kept many materials, which can be used, once. Then we sliced old wooden columns and beams to use as ceiling finish. We also use Japanese “shoji” window as ceiling finish and Oya stone as gardening floor finish and fence again.
This house has simple dutch gable roof, which is Japanese traditional. Big triangle window is put in south high side to have sunlight between trees, so we can feel garden if we close all the curtains.
The site lies a few minutes away from a traditional shopping street, and is a short distance from where two main roads in Tokyo intersect. The owner requested a new multi-family dwelling building that could be uniquely adapted to the dense urban area, while at the same time would be bright and open to natural daylight. On the south side of the lot is a road with a width of 8 meters and an unpaved parking lot. The original parking lot function of the site is to be continued underneath the new building, and maintains a height capable of accommodating the stopping the microbus. Located halfway between residential and shopping areas, the site vicinity has good access to the city center of Tokyo, and is a vibrant and diverse neighborhood with people of different age groups, occupations and positions.
The apartment plot is located in a low rise residential district between a railway extending approximately 11 meters and a residential road extending 4 meters.
With maximum height limits of 10m and minimum living room area of 25 square meters in mind, we drew up a plan. With the theme being the environmental impact statements of low rise housing neighborhoods, we took into consideration a pleasant living environment and high earnings of low rise residential areas.
The site is in a built‐up area. The site is on the corner, and about half of the lap length of the site contacts with a road.Because a nursery school is a public building, it is necessary to mind the environmental consideration to the neighborhood in the house crowd place.
We placed the first floor in the road side of the site and placed the second floor in the depths side. It is a courtyard-shaped plan.This form can get lighting effectively from the outside space of the building’s center. And it was effective for the ventilation.The road side considers the scale feeling of the one-storied house. The sense of oppression to those who pass in the building has been softened by continuing wood wall of red Cedar along the road. An external sash and the louver in the exterior stairway also adopted a wooden sash and the uniformity of the facade was aimed at.
In Japan, large-scale urban redevelopment and reorganization is progressing, and companies are concentrating on the skyscrapers in the downtown area, so a lot of small old office buildings are left over. As the population of Japan decreases, vacant buildings are increasing more and more. The number of young people who find value in old buildings is increasing, but they do not gather in the decayed ruins. We were consulted from the owner of a small office building completed in 1971 in Osaka city. Although the interior finish was deteriorated and really bad condition, concrete framework and retro materials were beautifully aged. We suggested refreshing the building drastically and changing it into an office complex targeting creative people such as designers, architects, and artists. We carefully picked up good parts such as tiles, sashes and handrails, removed unnecessary signs and equipment, and returned to simple condition. We removed all of the interior, returned it to the framework of the concrete, and changed the layout to suit the contemporary needs. We planned rental office of various sizes , shared kitchen and lounge from 1st floor to 3rd floor. And we designed 2 SOHO rooms which have a cube containing sanitary on 4th floor. We also reinforced the structure by concrete wall and steel brace because this building is located directly above an active fault. The Mansard-shape steel brace facing the street became the icon of this building.
The site had a depth in the north and south when viewed from the road side, buildings were built on both sides, basically it was like a closed dead end. On the other hand, when looking out from the inside of the site, there was a lot of sight and light from the urbanization adjustment area spreading along the south road. Coupled with the slight difference in height between the site and the road, I felt a sense that the mountain ranges from the near view field to the far side Iyo mountains are strongly connected to the ground.
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