Every W hotel is designed for its specific location with foreign designers invited to offer the fresh perspectives of an outsider. For W’s first hotel in Japan, Sekisui House and Marriott International called on the Amsterdam’s Concrete Architectural Associates challenging designers from one of Europe’s most famous harbor cities to discover inspiration in an ancient harbor city on the other side of the world.
Project team: Rob Wagemans, Bart de Beer, Julia Hundermark, Sofie Ruytenberg, Cathelijne Vreugdenhil, Femke Zumbrink, Marlou Spierts, Sylvie Meuffels, Rene Kroondijk, Erik van Dillen, Valentina Venturi, Petra Moerbeek, Minouk Balster
Owner was asked to make place where inhabitants can feel space sign of openness, airy and family while ensuring privacy from anywhere. During the daytime, the inhabitants can live without electric lights because of introducing uniform sunlight from the atrium and an opening and a large coutyard on the north side of the living in the center of the house. In addition, people can take bath with view of the cortyard. I set a deciduous tree, by which they can feel a sense of the season in the house.
When starting the design process of a new building, we always think about creating something that will lead to a rediscovery of the town or areas unique charms.
Not far from the city, this hotel is located in a neighborhood with a diverse and pleasant atmosphere. An area favored by many artists and others, whom are attracted by the somewhat rustic and free ambience.
This project was for a house located in the corner of a densely populated area with various houses of different age, height, frontage, and color.The site is at the corner of a road with heavy traffic day and night despite its narrowness, and the adjacent house is built so close together, nearly touching the site boundary. Considering the noise and privacy, it was inevitable to adopt a structure that is closed to the surrounding environment. Therefore, the challenge was to prevent the room from having a locked-up feeling and to incorporate the natural environment.
Well-planned houses are sometimes too close to human lives. While they are comfortable, I feel that too much planning has the risk of forcing a pre-defined lifestyle onto the residents. Perhaps if we start the process from a point not too close to the client's initial wishes, and seek an autonomous solution while considering various conditions, we will ultimately enable them to live more freely and actively.
Walking down a Midosuji main street to the area with mid-to-high-rise residential and commercial buildings, suddenly a residential area filled densely with two storey wooden houses appeared. YMT-house is located in this area and measures just 49.5 square meter with 4m open width and 11m depth. In this limited condition, the client firstly required spacious living room for family of four, and then private rooms, enough storage, and the rooftop. To enrich and enhance life style while meeting all these requirements, the project focuses on the scale difference between each room.
This is a situation of owning a house with the attributes of being in the “center of downtown”, “a renovation of an old house” and “a connected town house”. This is opposed to the more common houses in Japan, which is usually, “rural”, “newly built” and “detached”.
Toyosaki is a town located in a 15 minute walking distance from Umeda station, a main hub of transportation in North Osaka. It is also a 10 minute walking distance to the nearest subway station and is therefore, very convenient. In the area, there is a main street but also back streets where these older connected town houses exists.
This is a new company-founded nursery school that was established amid the Japanese government’s increased efforts to resolve the issue of children being put on waiting lists to enter day care facilities.
At this house – a residence designed for a family of three and their many belongings – the client requested that the members of the family can feel close to each other regardless of where they are in the house. Moreover, private rooms were not needed because they feel that it is lonely to withdraw into one’s space, and storage space was also unnecessary because they did not want to tuck things away. As a result of trying to find a form that allows the whole house to feel like one room while securing sufficient space for their belongings at the same time, we proposed a design to connect the flooring with a height difference of 700 mm, where the different levels can be used as tables and shelves. The floors build up as two spiral shapes, joins at the living room, and then separate into two again before arriving at the rooftop deck. By using this combination of two spirals, we were able to create multiple paths inside the house that allows different room compartments and changes in the circulation, equipping the house to be able to accommodate changes in the lifestyle of the client.
email
Facebook
Twitter
RSS Feed
