The project is a renovation of two rooms of 50-year-old rein forced concrete apartment building for renting offices.
What is needed to a renting office in this times when anyone easily access to property information and have a comparative review, that is office space is available environment for a diversified work styles and business model.
It was such a great honor for me to design the renovation of my favorite building that I used to see every day. About nine years ago, we had co-established a shared office HAPPA across the street from the building and relocated our former office there; we employed to observe the neighborhood through the glass and this building was my most favorite among others on the street.
UNPLAN Kagurazaka is a newly opened hostel in central Tokyo, built to accommodate various guests such as international backpackers and domestic business travellers. The hostel houses 78 bunker styled beds and three fully enclosed rooms along with an open lounge and other supporting functions.
Hotel ICHINICHI is a small hostel located in a local shopping street of Akabane, Tokyo. It is retrofitting an existing five-story reinforced concrete building with history. This building was originally built as a tiny complex housing a beauty salon and offices, as well as dormitories for its employee. Through time, it has remained vacant for several years.
This project is the renovation of a unit in a twenty-five year old apartment building for a married couple. We inserted a single wooden wall into the unit, which is already partitioned by the existing structural concrete walls. Passing from the entrance through the entire interior space, the wooden wall organizes a series of spaces along its length.
JINS, one of the biggest eyewear brands in Japan, commissioned Schemata Architects to design the renewal of their Ageo shop on the occasion of its 12th anniversary. The existing shop consists of two L-shaped blocks, respectively an eyewear shop and a cafe, positioned around a square courtyard surrounded by an open corridor serving as a cozy outdoor cafe space. However, the existing building was clad in wooden panels and the courtyard and the cafe were hidden from the street.
We removed the exterior walls and installed Low-E paired glass to initiate the view towards the beautiful courtyard from the street, while creating an impressive display of their extensive eyewear products highly visible from the street at the same time.
The client is a couple in their 50s and both work full-time. Their plan was to rebuild their parents’ house in the urban area in order to live with their mother. The site is located in a dense residential area where one can find the remnant of good old days of Tokyo. In order to prepare for possible natural disasters in the future, the couple wished to build a house of reinforced concrete box frame construction with high resistance to fire and earthquakes. Since the site is small with a deformed shape, it was required to achieve the maximum capacity while avoiding setback-line limits on each side of the house.
It’s located in an alley close to “Cat Street” near Shibuya, Harajyuku and Omotesando.
The original exterior design was not so bad as the one of 45 years ago. Presumably it was designed by an competent architect. So, as for the exterior, we intended not to change a lot and to show the original design purely. Actually, we only removed balconies and replaced two sliding windows with fixed large windows.
There is the vacant house which has formed local community. “House of Komajii” in Komagome of Tokyo opened as a place where local people stay in October, 2013. Because originally this vacant house was a dormitory, the space was divided finely. Therefore about half of the building was a storeroom. When I received the request of the design, The client expected that I released the space of the storeroom in the area, and made the structure for “House of Komajii” to become independent, and rotate. (It is run now without almost taking the fee for use by the kindness of the owner.) I plan to break a wall and enlarge the space, and more people can gather in the first floor and convert the second floor to share office as source of profits.
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