“Nishiki-cho Bunkaisan” is a renovation project for a new creative center integrating food museum, restaurant, farm business incubation office and residence for innovating personality of people, business and culture with inheriting the memory of Nishiki-cho area. “Bunkai×San” means “demolition×creation” in Japanese. This is why the architectural design target is to construct self-renovation system to generate opportunities and places for creating the next social vision.
Lumine Co., Ltd. is an operator of commercial facilities in and around the Tokyo area, targeting women in their 20s and 30s. We conducted a large-scale renovation of their offices, the first in 20 years, with the objectives of promoting communication between departments and with the shop floor, creating an environment where staff can express themselves flexibly and focus on creative work, and building on reforms of working practices to improve operational efficiency.
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.
DUCCIO GRASSI ARCHITECTS had renewed and transformed the spaces of the MAX MARA flagship store of Tokyo, in the exclusive area of Aoyama.
In a corner position between Aoyama-Dori and Kotto-Dori, this space of over 400 square meters has one impressive facade and great visibility.
The exterior of the building, covered in pink granite and characterized by two large columns has been completely redesigned and made more current and consistent with the values of the brand. The design of this exterior has taken up the challenge of maintaining a unitary aspect without entering in conflict with the upper part of the building in which it is inserted in. The windows have been eliminated, the lower windows modified or closed, the columns incorporated in the new colored glass greige coating.
A café situated on the 2nd floor of the Sogetsu Kaikan in Minato ward, Tokyo. Its original interiors are still intact from when they were designed by Kenzo Tange in 1977. It also boasts some very picturesque views of the Akasaka Estate, the Korekiyo Takahashi Memorial Park, and the stone garden created by Isamu Noguchi. In order to preserve these features, the walls and ceilings have been left untouched, no new wall fixtures have been set up, and only the floor and furniture have been redesigned. The “stream” flooring designed by nendo has been fitted throughout to smoothly unify the bi-partitioned space. The sides of the counters have been fitted with same said material, and the flooring tile jointers on the counters and stairs have all also been aligned with those on the floor, so as to create and even greater sense of consistency within the room. Also, the tops of the counters have been finished in a gloss black to match the grey mirror finish of the ceiling. In the lounge area, the original “tulip chairs” by Eero Saarinen have been repaired for reuse with a new matted black paint finish. The accompanying “tulip tables” have also been repaired, and their tabletops have been fitted with the same mirror material as the ceiling. The result is an interior design that brings out the innate properties and merits of the original space as it was first conceived.
The Sogetsu Kaikan in Minato ward, Tokyo, was designed by one of the pioneers of modern Japanese architecture, Kenzo Tange. It was constructed in 1977, and also known for housing Tange’s own offices on its 10th floor. It is primarily characterized by its half-mirrored curtain wall exterior, reflecting the greenery from the Akasaka Estate opposite, and its planar construction, allowing for a clear and unobstructed view by diagonally cutting through its L-shaped lines of flow. Considering these characteristic features, we have sought to come up with “a design inspired by the exterior aesthetics”, rather than “a design based on interior functionality” so often seen in office buildings. Firstly, the interior layout has been designed to fit in with the L-shaped lines of flow and diagonal shafts to as great an extent as possible, and the exterior curtain wall has also been replicated indoors. As the original aluminium window frames were special-ordered and their dies and molds are now out of production, these aluminium window frames have been extruded anew. We experimented widely with a variety of IR reflecting films and paints in order to precisely recreate the colouring of the original half-mirrored exterior and sashes. And in order to accentuate the reflection of the half-mirror, the flooring material has been fitted symmetrically in relation to the curtain wall. The result is an interior design that allows one to get a strong sense of the character and form of the building as a whole.
When thinking about “window”, I thought that “cross section” of “window” had infinite possibility, decided to consider again from the composition of the window. The window can be seen as observing that the physical role is a determinant of its composition, but the “window” which is the boundary between the inside (architectural space) and the outside (earth space) is taken as “section” Looking at “cross section” with a microscope and gazing at it, you can find a lot of “whereabouts” like “edge side” there. There is an important role that connects the inside (architectural space) and the outside (the earth space), and at the same time, the place where the neighboring side has an important place to connect “people and architecture” “people and the earth” and “people and people”.
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