A two-family home in a quiet residential area of Tokyo. With other houses and apartment buildings pressing around the site, the architectural volume was pushed to the north to take in daylight, ventilation, and greenery of the yard into the living environment by a large glass front southern facade. The layout plan made it possible to preserve the existing persimmon tree beloved by the previous generations. Considering the potential difficulties of going up and down the stairs, the rooms for the older couple were arranged on the 1st floor. The eight cats living with the older couple roam in and outdoors more freely, and encourages the mother to enjoy her hobby of gardening more freely. The younger couple and their child reside on the 2nd and 3rd floors.
K5 Tokyo, housed in a converted 1920s bank building, sits beside the Tokyo Stock Exchange and connects the traditional Imperial Palace area with hip Eastern Tokyo.
The Japanese word ‘Aimai’ guides K5 Tokyo’s concept. It means vague, obscure or ambiguous, which in Japanese is often used in a positive, poetic sense. (The term denotes the benefits of erasing borders.) K5 Tokyo’s functions intentionally intermingle: The library is the bar, while the coffee shop doubles as a lounge, which flows into a wine bar and restaurant.
Article source: Satoshi Kurosaki / APOLLO Architects & Associates
A two-family house situated in a residential Tokyo neighborhood. While the living areas are completely separate, the construction features a rhythmically and holistically integrated façade that suits the characteristics of each household.
By providing the parental household (consisting of two parents and a daughter) with a first-floor living-dining kitchen and placing cedar-textured bare concrete walls on the road side, this residence functions as a courtyard house that connects to the forecourt on the entrance side while ensuring privacy. Also, the private floors on the second and third stories incorporate separate private rooms that give each adult resident the freedom to live independently.
This two-generation residence is located in the working-class shitamachi section of Tokyo’s Shinagawa district. The property is surrounded by old wooden homes whose lots are being subdivided as the younger generation takes them over, increasing the density of an already densely developed neighborhood. New structures must meet or exceed the codes for semi-fireproof construction, which regulate the use of wood. The client, however, wanted a home with a “natural” feeling and plenty of wood.
This interior is located in one of several dining areas within Toyosu Fish Market in Tokyo. This huge market has moved from Tsukiji (1935-2018) to Toyosu. The floor area of this small restaurant is 38㎡. The main menu is seafood . This shop was open for a long time when there was a fish market in Tsukiji. Finally, They were able to open the restaurant in this new location.
The keywords of the interior design are “grid”,”wood” and”white”. The reason was that we wanted to be able to express cleanliness and continuity. Because it is in a huge building, there are complex rules regarding disaster prevention. Therefore, there are some parts where the above keywords have not been realized. It may be an accent or a familiarity.
Architects usually have to deal with many conditions given by clients, especially when designing a house, because it directly affects people’s life. They spend large amount of money in building it and then spend many hours in it once it is built. On the contrary, this project involved few conditions given by our client, because this room would be used as his “second home” and “lounge” for private gatherings and he only needed very basic life functions. His only request for us was to design a “place to enjoy good wine with close friends” and a “table made of solid wood.”
Fontworks Inc. moved its headquarters from Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, to Minato-ku, Tokyo, for the purpose of providing further communication business and expanding our business. Along with this, Fontworks worked on the design of a new office with PRISM DESIGN, an international design studio in Base Shanghai and Japan.
In 2018, when Fontworks celebrated our 25th anniversary, have formulated a tag line called “Character More Freely” with all our employees, and have been developing specific business activities over the past year. The fonts that Fontworks have consistently provided since our founding are also evolving at a tremendous speed in the environment in which they are used. From paper media to the on-screen era, there are also many such as AR / VR. It extends to dimensions. In addition to creating a typeface that is optimal for the environment in which characters are displayed, it is essential to develop technologies that take into account the environment of the customer being used.Even in the new office, Fontworks have set keywords such as “Fusion of analog and digital”, “fusion of creative and engineering”, “work while playing”, and “collaboration among employees” so that we can embody “Character More Freely” Made. The history cultivated in the past 25th anniversary, the future to be shaped in the next 25 years.
Nanatsuji is a small three-storey wood framed structure sheathed in darkly matted, metal siding. It is a new member to the Kojiya community, a friendly estuary town in South Tokyo. In this slow but lively townscape, with sea breezes on the nose, one might easily forget this is part of one of the world’s largest megalopolises. Bright and bustling with shoppers by day but a muted, gently lit refuge in the evening, it was a place to build with careful consideration for its history and community character.
I designed a long counter table around an open kitchen, inspired by Japanese Sushi/Teppan-yaki counter, giving diners a front-row view of all the chefʼs activities. It is like a theater, and I named it “TEATRO” that means “theater” in Italian. I designed indirect lighting with a steel grid over the counter table, so the lighting shines onto the basement floor like sunshine. A wall of steel shelves between the restaurant and the bar sometimes interrupts and sometimes passes the view to each diner, so the wall forms a tie, whilst cutting space. I tried to design a pleasing space where elegance and relaxation come together well, by using some materials which are rustic but also elegant and simple in design.
This restaurant is a result of the collaboration between Mr. Kusuda Takuya, a connoisseur of the Japanese wine scene, and Mr. Miyanaga Hisatsugu, a famous chef. It’s located far from a busy thoroughfare in a quiet part of Ebisu, and access is via private intercom only. I wanted to create a feeling of exclusivity and a special place for diners, different from other restaurants in the area, changing the negative “inconvenient” into a more positive idea. I treated this restaurant not as a standard restaurant, but as a secret special dining space within a world class wine cellar, known only to a select clientele. Guests will gain access via an unmarked entrance, descending to a basement level where doors will open to reveal Mr. Kusuda’s private working space, where Mr. Kusuda will customize and select wines for each customer to purchase. Then a hidden door opens between the shelves, finally entering the dining space.
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