House Within a House /1: Todoroki Residence by Hiromi Fujii, Ichikawa (1976) LT Josai / Naruse Inokuma Architects. Mfas. Cure Salon Monsieur / Upsetters Architects. Architects: Upsetters Architects Location: Umeyashiki, Tokyo, Japan Project Area: 99.6 sqm Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Yusuke Wakabayashi A complex of a beauty salon and a cafe, whose site has a narrow frontage. The site is a little way off the main shopping street and on a lane. In addition, it is narrow and deep, which we Japanese call “unagino-nedoko” (means “a bed for an eel”).
The client desired it to be like a retreat. Thus we divided the building into three parts and slightly shifted them each other. Additionally, we used different materials for each part and alternate their roof pitches so that people can feel it extending far back. Furthermore, we put its entrance on the side and people just feel what is happening inside in its front. The space for hair dressing is located in the middle and has the other two parts’ exterior walls as its interior wall. . * Location to be used only as a reference. Chushin-ji / Katsuhiro Miyamoto & Associates. Architecture: Katsuhiro Miyamoto & Associates Location: Kamiina-District, Nagano, Japan Principal in Charge: Katsuhiro Miyamoto Project Team: Isamu Tamaishi, Takenori Uotani Structural Engineering: Hirokazu Toki / University of Shiga Prefecture & Takashi Manda/ Takashi Manda structural design General Contractor: Shibusaki Kensetsu Site Area: 862.63 sqm Built Area: 243.42 sqm Total Floor Area: 226,18 sqm Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Takumi Ota Chushin-ji is a Buddhist temple nestled in the Japan Alps.
It boasts a long history of over 550 years. The head priest desired to make use of these Priest’s Quarters for such events as exhibitions, lectures and concerts where locals can gather. The residential area and the common space are arranged under a large roof, like a large umbrella, that takes the rhythm of the roofs of the adjacent main hall and reception hall into consideration. The roof is made of thick concrete so that it would last for 100 or 200 years. 広島・東京・建築設計事務所 suppose design office. Fujitsobo / Archivision. Architects: Archivision Location: Tokyo, Japan Principals in Charge: Yoshihiro Hirotani & Yusaku Ishida Structural Engineers: Umezawa Structural Engineers Mechanical Engineers: Azu Planning General Contractor: Daido Housing Site Area: 67.88 sqm Constructed Area: 108.31 sqm Project Year: 2008-2009 Photographs: Yuichi Higurashi This beauty parlor stands in the Omote-sando area of Tokyo, which represents one of the trend setting centers for this metropolis. The building has three roof openings which pours light into the interior and, which, by slit-like openings in the floor is led into the floors below, reaching the ground floor, which in turn can be seen from the street level through its large glass windows.
Thereby, expressing the image of a “vessel of light.” It is, also, a message of “nature” in an area where there is an abundance of “artificial” light. This small piece of architecture is an experimental expression of the universal theme of “light” and “time.” 藤原・室建築設計事務所|大阪・建築家・狭小住宅・兵庫・奈良. Alp / Akihisa Hirata. Architects: Akihisa Hirata Location: Kita, Tokyo, Japan Site area: 294,02 sqm Built area: 161,92 sqm Total floor area: 499 sqm Project Year: 2008-2010 Photographs: Toshiyuki Yano This is housing project in Tokyo. We would like to rethink the architecture not as the act to produce an area like a box, but as a folded surface created by the movement of the ground.
Here, the balance of the pressure between the inside and the outside produces the bumped walls or roofs, which creates one big volume with subtle division. One can approach each house from exterior corridor, created by the dent of the volume. We can see the jostle between the inside and the outside in each rooms for example, the direct shape of roofs, diagonal protruding created by external stairs or distortion of the space by the folded walls. * Location to be used only as a reference. Residence In Kishigawa / Mitsutomo Matsunami. Architects: Mitsutomo Matsunami Location: Kishigawa, Japan Project area: 161,66 sqm Project year: 2011 Photographs: Mitsutomo Matsunami The owner of the house is a Sushi chef from Wakayama.
Dressed in coveralls most of his spare time, he is a big car lover and a mature man who enjoys both his work and hobby. With masculine clarity, his wishes for a new house were to view from the interior his parked car in a covered garage and to have his evening drink with fish char-grilled over an Irori (traditional Japanese open hearth), but to accommodate only two rooms. The extended landscape of the surrounding area was the decisive factor in determining the house location. There is no traditional entrance hall; visitors enter the house from the courtyard and through a ground-level connecting space called Doma. The owner’s close connection to the community made it possible to have this open approach to enjoy frequent visits of neighbors and friends, which shows the nature of the locals. House of Slope / Fujiwarramuro Architects.
Architect: Fujiwarramuro Architects Location: Sakai, Osaka, Japan Project Team: Shintaro Fujiwara, Yoshio Muro Principle use: Single family house Site area: 103.91 sqm Building area: 52.17 sqm Total floor area: 107.49 m2 Structure: Timber Photographs: Toshiyuki Yano This residential project is built on a flag-shaped site in Osaka surrounded by densely packed buildings. Even when faced with these challenging site conditions, we felt that it would be possible to come up with an interesting design solution based on a structure that appears to “float” in a large, open space.
By ensuring a continuous sense of spatial circulation through the flag-shaped portion of the site, the inhabitants of the house are able to “drift” through their favorite spaces like goldfish in a bowl. MTH / aat+makoto yokomizo, architects. Architect: aat+makoto yokomizo, architects Inc Location: Minamiashigara, Kanagawa-pref., Japan Structure: Structured Environment / Alan Burden Construction: Kenmotsu Giken Site area: 640.16 sqm Building area: 79.39 sqm Total floor area: 136.81 sqm Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Hiro Sakaguchi The site is located on a hillside approximately 1 hour by car from central Tokyo.
Though there is a slope facing the north, it is prime property offering a magnificent view of the Western Tanzawa mountain range sitting in the distance. The owner is a family of three members with a husband who works as a car engineer, a wife who enjoys baking, and a high school son with a passion for bicycles. The husband requested a garage where he can enjoy his hobby customizing vintage motorcycles. Initially, we planned to build the home on the upper part of the slope in order to highlight the view while building the garage on the lower part of the slope near the road.
Enbutsu-do / Zai Shirakawa Architects. Architects: Zai Shirakawa Architects Location: Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, Japan Project Year: 2012 Photographs: Toru Kitamura, Daichi Ano Project Area: 75.37 sqm Site Area: 1,922.14 sqm Client: Religious corporation Eifukuji This project is composed of four wings including Enbutsu-do Hall at Eifuku-ji Temple in Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku, Japan. Enbutsu-do Hall, house for chief priest, should be such a place as a cave which keeps his private life quiet from many visitors to the Temple.
Each of 77 windows cut oblique through the 700mm (max.) thick exterior walls has its own function, and plays its role freely in the thickness of the wall. The one that puts light from the sky in looks upward, and the other that interrupts summer light and accepts winter light looks northwards. The building was completed in autumn, 2011. * Location to be used only as a reference. Precut - Modern Japanese Timber Construction. Airy house / Ikimono Architects. This part-café/part-house by Ikimono Architects revolves around the relationship between the outside and inside. The client specifically requested that everything start from the connection to the outside. The strong but simple exterior is comprised of two rectangular forms that sit perpendicular to each other.
Each of these forms takes on a different program to accommodate the dual needs of the client. Architect: Takashi Fujino/Ikimono Architects Location: Gunma, Japan General Contractor: Capital Woods Inc. Design Year: 2008-2009 Structure: Timber frame construction Use: Dwelling with shop Roof: Galvalume steel plate roofing Exterior: Keystone plate Project Year: 2009 Project Area: Area: 181.49 sqm floor area, 119.24 sqm building area, 249.61 sqm site area Photographs: Takashi Fujino / Ikimono Architects The downstairs of both forms are fairly open to the outside with the residential form being narrower to satisfy a transition to the more secluded living quarters.
HARBOR / Katsutoshi Sasaki. The challenge for Katsutoshi Sasaki was to create a place of residence in a neighborhood of Gifu, Japan that was claustrophobic and allowed little access to natural light and privacy. The resulting project, called HARBOR, is a residence that challenges the crowded residential area and secures access of light and air for its residents while also providing access to the nature. More photographs and information from this project after the break.
The concept for this project called for first envisioning the property as a full volume that met the requirements of the requested area size. Following this assessment, area above and below the volume were proceeded to be cut away to reveal voids in the volume of the structure. These voids, which increased the surface area and created a faceted facade to the street also became the place where the concept takes full form.
Residential units face the inside of each of the courtyards that they surround, with 2-3 bedrooms each. Location: Gifu, Japan. IVY House / SPEAC. Architect: Hiroyuki Miyabe / SPEAC, inc. Location: Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Japan Producer: Hiroya Yoshizato (SPEAC, inc.) Architect in Charge: Tomoko Kawai (SPEAC, inc.) Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Takeshi Yamagishi This was a deserted house that called a haunted house because of the ivy covering the whole. All windows were closed with the ivy and the spaces that partitioned into small pieces were very dark. After the partitions and ceilings were removed, we reinforced the structure with the diagonal braces and walls.
The space of the 1st floor is filled with brightness giving a hint of the texture of old structure. Hut with the Arc Wall / Tato Architects. Architects: Tato Architects Location: Shodoshima Island, Japan Year: 2013 Photographs: Ken’ichi Suzuki From the architect. I made a public toilet at Shodoshima Island as a part of the project of Setouchi Art Festival in which I came to participate from this time. The site is in the area called “Hishio-no-sato (Native place of sauce)” where pre-modern architecture of soy sauce making warehouse remains collectively most in Japan.
These warehouses are authorized as registered tangible cultural property, where soy sauce has been made still in the old-fashioned formula.Framing of a traditional cabin and large cedar barrels on the floor are the characteristic scene. Due to circumstances on the site the construction had tobe completed in about two months.
I adopted tile roofing following nearby houses. The smoked tiles and glass tiles cannot easily be distinguished, during the day, from outside and may be mistaken for the same as the unevenness of the aged roof tiles of the neighborhood. AD Classics: The Kyoto International Conference Center / Sachio Otani. The International conference center in Kyoto is a geometric megastructure of exposed, reinforced concrete designed by Japanese architect Sachio Otani in 1963. Although relatively unknown, the Center is a unique, Modern masterpiece that re-interprets traditional Japanese architecture and asserts itself powerfully into its peaceful, natural surroundings.
Read more after the break… In 1963 Japan’s first national architecture competition was held for “A conference center that must function as a new symbol of Kyoto.” Out of the 195 entries that were submitted, the jury commissioned Sachio Otani, who had previously worked in Kenzo Tange’s studio on the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (1955) and started his own practice in 1960. Inspired by the project’s site on the shore of Lake Takaragaike, Otani sought a way to integrate the building’s brutalistic appearance into its green surroundings.
Today the center still facilitates its original purpose, housing dozens of conferences year round. Junya ishigami + associates. House designed for a young couple . Tokyo junya ishigami + associates . photos: © junya ishigami + associates . + domus A residence for a young couple in a suburb of Tokyo. Planter House / no.555. Architects: no.555 Location: Yokohama, Japan Architect In Charge: Takuya Tsuchida Structural Design: Megumi Akimoto Area: 188 sqm Year: 2012 Photographs: Courtesy of no.555 The project NDA (PLANTER) is located on top of a steep slope in “Yamate Bluff”, Yokohama, Japan. This area offers panoramic views over the city and the Mount Fuji. In the vicinity there is a small but beautiful park that has many preserved houses and is popular among tourists.
Since I believe that building design should respect and challenge the potential of an area and the direct environment, the NDA project is deeply connected to the “Yamate Bluff Load” characteristics. The “Yamate Bluff Load” is an area featuring many retaining walls. The texture and the facades’ overall appearance is inspired by this particularity. Reducing the standard size of the concrete panels affected the amount of mortar joints, thus creating a somehow more busy pattern. Time alters things, seasons weather stones. House Komazawa Park / miCo. Broken Pitched Roof House / NKS Architects. KCH / Kochi Architect’s Studio. Garden Tree House / Hironaka Ogawa & Associates.
Yokohama Apartment / ON design partners. Rainy|Sunny / Mount Fuji Architects Studio. House in Yamasaki / Tato Architects. A-Ring / Atelier TEKUTO. Matsubara House / Hiroyuki Ito + O.F.D. N Maeda Atelier: Torus. House in Yamasaki. Kengo Kuma - Power of Place. Kansuke Yamamoto (Experimental Artist) SPATIAL DESIGN STUDIO . A studio. Ito . Inui . Fujimoto . Hirata. BE-FUN DESIGN. Ryue Nishizawa. House in Goido / Fujiwarramuro Architects. A House in Kamigamo / Méga. House T. Double House / Tonoma. Montblanc House / Studio Velocity. Tree House / Mount Fuji Architects Studio.
Stair House / y+Mdo. Beat Pack / Studio LOOP. Hiroshi Kuno + Associates - Kumagai House . Sapporo. Tato Architects. Ikimono Architects. Yoshichika takagi + sekkei-sha. JA+U | Japan Architecture+Urbanism. 74 mamm-design. Akihisa Hirata. A house in Kitashirakawa / Méga. 宮内庁参観案内(皇居・京都御所・仙洞御所・桂離宮・修学院離宮) Katsura Imperial Villa. Machi-House / UID Architects. Transparent House by Sou Fujimoto Architects. Kofunaki House / ALTS Design Office. House in Okusawa / Schemata Architects.