In such a small house site in Tokyo, it’s common to build several small levels up to keep enough space for living. In this project,considering this style very positively, each floor has one simple room style:
1F: Bath room and small atelier
2F: Living & Dining 3F: Master bedroom and children’s room 4F: loof top
A couple who works for foreign affiliates newly bought a site in a quiet residential area, with a desire for a house that enables living in coexistence with the art collection of the husband, who is a collector of modern art, and his beloved car.
This is a house for a couple in their 40s for spending valuable time with their two daughters. As a motif for the plan, the husband, who is a company owner, chose designs by Alvar Aalto and the small churches that are the heart and soul of people, of which he was influenced when he traveled Northern Europe. The living spaces are filled with the warmth of wood, which is somehow similar to idyllic scenery in Japan.
A house where light shines in and fresh air flows between the floating floors.
The size of the property is approximately width 2.5m and depth 11m. This small and narrow piece of land is a typical “eels’ bed” site, where one can reach his/her arm from left wall to right wall even though buildings stand very tight and compact next to one another. We have tried to reserve as much space as possible as well as to provide psychological openness for the resident. The house has been designed to follow the concept “A house with playfulness where people and cats live happily”.
Designing the relationship of collectivity and individuality
A cooperative house with eleven dwelling units located in the suburb of western Tokyo. Firstly, skeleton plan was provided to the potential residents. Infill design was developed based on this skeleton frame. Under such scheme, the challenge was to develop the space dynamically through interactivity of the skeleton and infill design instead of simply adjusting the infill design into the skeleton frame.
A composite store that consists of a specialty boutique for organic cosmetics and a café, tucked away on a street behind Aoyama-Street. For a woman to enhance her beauty, a close linkage between inner and outer body care is required. We therefore designed a service and space based on a concept that fuses to the maximum the features of cosmetics with food & drink. One is able to leaf through information on various products using a tablet and casually try out every single product in the store as if ordering a beverage, while enjoying your drink and food that enhances beauty from within. What’s more, QR codes are placed alongside each product, which enables customers to take home the information about that product on their mobile device and purchase them online later. In this way, the store not only sells cosmetic products, but is also a place where knowledge relating to them can be obtained. Therefore it can be described as a “library” like space with well-organized wooden shelves. Moreover, a “self-study room” feature was added amongst the shelves, with in-built café tables and bracket lights. The logo was designed to give an image of a square bookshelf filled with letters. In addition an “annex” hidden across the courtyard was designed so as not to just function as a café, but as a space that can serve as a party room, and hold small events and workshops.
This project is a self-build pavilion on campus. Responding to the light, it shows unique morphing between different geometries. One is the fern, biological swirl form, and the other is the roof, architectural triangular form. These traditional design motifs seamlessly merge into a livable architecture by using today’s electronic technologies.
It is getting more and more difficult to use wood for housing in the city. We see wooden houses but it costs a lot of money for disaster prevention and maintenance.
Article source: K+S Architects, Nobuya Kashima + Aya Sato
Surrounding environment
Rebuilding of a house at Nihonbashi-Ningyo-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
The house is built near the main street, and there are many old and new restaurants and shops around here. Almost all of the buildings has shops on the 1st floor, and houses or offices on the upper floor. There are many medium-size apartments and offices on the south of this site, so this site cannot get enough sunlight. Many four-storied of buildings are densely built in this area, so we have to consider about getting light and breeze well.
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