Lucky Drop House | Tokyo | Atelier Tekuto

Among the increasing number of houses planned on small plots of land, this is out of the ordinary in shade and size, A 20-minute train ride from downtown Tokyo, 15-minuite walk from the station. It is a long, narrow trapezoid with a lower base of 3.2m as the frontage, height of 29.3m as the depth, and upper base of 0.7m at the very end of the site. Moreover, there is a local ordinance requiring a 0.5-meter set-back of external walls from the adjacent land. Conditions are extremely tough. From the moment I had looked through the site's situation, I have organized a collaboration system consisting　of the client, design, structure, construction and maker, then started off planning.....more

House In Nigata | Nigata City | Tokyo | Daigo Ishii + Future-scape

The house locates in front of the spacious rice fields. We designed it in consideration of the relation between the rich environment and the client’s life. Three small huts are put on the flat house of the ground floor.
The ground floor is an open space where the client enjoys the time with friends. In this space, the direction of the activity is parallel to the scenery. So, as a backdrop of the activity, they are somewhat conscious of the scenery.
Three huts are the private spaces. Each hut has windows in four directions for introducing light and wind, so those are just small solitary houses in the nature. The alternate disposition of the huts is effective for receiving the light and wind at maximum.
The huts face directly to the scenery so that they would be strongly conscious of it.
In each hut, the finish material and how to cut out the view are different. Therefore, the sense of distance between the scenery and the client becomes diverse.
The western hut is finished in wood with familiar atmosphere corresponding to the function of the daily-use bedrrom. In the central hut which interior is covered with metal, the scenery is cut as a big picture flame. In this hut, the scenery is emphasized and they are strongly conscious of the scenery.
The interior of the eastern hut is finished in mirror and paint with strong gloss so that the scenery would be reflect in the surface as if the exterior were introduced in the interior. Therefore, the scenery becomes a kind of the finish materials. While, the very conservative materials such as a wool carpet and a Andean Rose wood are also used.
The mix of the scenery as the finish material and the conservative materials produces the confused relation in the finish of space, as a result, it accelerated the dismantling of the scenery. Since the color and material of the exterior appearance are usual in the area and the volume of the architecture is similar to the surrounding houses, the continuity between the townscape is generated.
At the same time, the composition of architecture is peculiar, therefore, the architecture intends to get the independence that is so delicate that it would generate no sense of incongruity in the townscape.......more

House In Meguro | Tokyo | Daigo Ishii + Future-scape Architects

A house which locates in the area crowded with houses in Tokyo. Due to the lack of the budget it was impossible to construct the 3 stories house as the neighbors. In place of it, the ceiling height of the 2nd floor was established higher than usual house. It was a design for evading that they see that this house is hollow from neighborhood houses.
The position of the exterior wall in the road side was also put in that of the neighborhood. Due to the car parking, the first floor was set back and the second floor which locates at more confortable level was overhanged. As for the interior, the house was designed so that the distance would be emphasized excessively in the small space, we intended to clarify the character of the house and to get the extent in the sense.....more

Japanese Modern House| Nigata-city, Nigata, Japan | Daigo Ishii + Future-scape Architects

House located on the west edge of the plains. In this district, Mt. Yahiko and Mt. Kakuda above sea level about 600m as regional landmarks stand between plains and sea.
The client's hope for the house was that, from the window, the client saw two mountains that used to seeing from the childhood.
But, according to the investigation before designing, we found that, even at the second floor level, they could not see Mt. Kakuda due to being obstructed by the other house but see only Mt. Yahiko. There may be a possibility of disappearing the view of Mt. Yahiko when a new house stood in the future. Although two mountains' view from the house will disappear, those will keep being the important identity for this site and the existence that suggests the wider world over the narrow space of the site. So, we designed this house as a compass that always considered the existence of two mountains while living.......more

Villa in Kaikoh | City of Atami, Shizuoka | Satoshi Okada Architects

Villa in Kaikoh is designed for a vacation house in the City of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture; well known as a hot spring resort, 100 kilometers west from Tokyo. The site is located on a steep cliff between a major public road and a narrow street below by 16 meters, from which a splendid view of the Pacific Ocean is appreciated.
Client family uses the villa for inviting guests not only to eat and drink after fishing, but to enjoy the thermal water directly provided from the local natural spring. In responding to the existing cliff terrain with convexly irregular surfaces; at first, the building form was considered to assimilate itself into the environment in an abstract way. In making architectural spaces, one simple rule was applied. It is a "folding by shifting" on a paper strip. The manipulation gives a rich spatiality of three dimensionally transparent in architecture with a variety of sections. When a single strip is folded by shifting in different directions, there happens to appear rather complex apertures in diagonal directions not only horizontally, but also vertically.....more

House Uc | Setagaya Tokyo Japan | Miyahara Architect Office

House Uc is a residence designed for a couple in their 30s and their daughter. It is located in the quiet residential area of Tokyo standing on a small and narrow site of irregular shape - a result of the recent trend of dividing property into smaller segments each time it is sold and bought due to inheritance issues and market availability. The site measures approximately 57 m2 in size: approximately 12 meters deep, 6 meters across where it faces the north road, and 2.7 meters across at the deepest end. The design for House Uc therefore needed to focus on the ideal form of an urban detached house within the constraints of the site itself as well as laws and regulations.

The client felt that a residence was a form of self-exposure to the outer world. In order to live up to his expectations, House Uc was designed to imply the essence of the house within the urban context by bringing out the characteristics of the finishing material that was chosen together with the client. The concrete exterior walls were coated with lean-mix acrylic paint, resulting in a black mottled effect according to the difference in the degree of water absorption and smoothness of the surface. The zinc-coated steel sashes on the east side were dipped in phosphate to strengthen the zinc layer, and the difference in the amount of zinc coating on the sashes projected a black patchy effect. The mottled exterior walls and patterned sashes are the result of chance (nature) and display a certain beauty, in a sense similar to human beings – people are attractive, pockmarks and all.

The east face was provided as a baseline to anchor the intensely irregular shape of the site. All partitions, equipment, etc. were positioned originating from the north-most corner of the east face. Natural lighting was no exception. Over 20 windows made of raw brass were randomly placed on the east face, allowing natural light to filter in through the golden screens in a nonuniform pattern. This irregular pattern of light provided by the east face or baseline wall will leave an impression on the residents’ minds, helping them with spatial orientation and becoming a trigger for daily actions; the design hopes to enhance spatial comfort for the residents by promoting the automatism of daily actions.

For the interior of the house, the first floor consists of an independent bedroom and bathroom. The second floor has a main room with a ceiling that partially opens onto the third floor; this aspect and the stairs made of perforated metal also contribute to the open feel of the main bedroom and tearoom on the third floor. The partitions were made of transparent glass and Japanese paper blinds so as not to divide the atmosphere. The third floor tearoom defined by the sudare or Japanese wooden blinds is the only space that opens out towards the south. Here, the residents can enjoy the view of the century-old landmark, the water tower - a positive reminder of the continuous flow of time......more
Location : Setagaya Tokyo Japan
Design : 2004.05-2005.05
Construction : 2005.05-2005.12
Total floor area : 91 sq.m

C House | Arakawa-ku, Tokyo | Power Unit Studio

In downtown Tokyo, two brotherly residences are located in the same site. The two places with "C" type sections face each other and stand in parallel without contact. In one of the "C" type spaces, there is a living room and dining room on the three different floor levels. Another "C" type space across the stairwell is used for multiple purposes.The private rooms and the bathroom are arranged linearly on the first floor.The glass wall along the corridor connects the private alley-space in front of the residence and the internal space.....more
location:Arakawa-ku, Tokyo
main use:private residence
site area:116.27m2
building area:67.71m2
total floor area:108.04m2
structure:wood, partly steel frame
complete:May.2001

3 Storey Wooden House | Tokyo Designed By Kazuya Morita Architecture Studio

The site is situated in downtown Tokyo, which is a planned residential community with a mix of old and new prototyped houses. The site is on a long wit a narrow frontage and the first floor space is required for the maintenance and to store a canoe.
In order to respect the common shape and texture of nearby existing buildings, the shape of the roof of the building are also commonly found in nearby old house.
The result is the appearance in consideration of the shape of the site environment and the neighborhood became like a townhouse.....more
DATA

Location:Meguro-ku Tokyo
Program: three-story wooden house
site area: 87.29
building area: 34.08
Floor Area: 112.90

Shimouma House | Tokyo | Kazuya Saito Architects

The site is located in a relatively dense residential area in Tokyo, on corner lot surrounded by roads on three sides, the shape of frontage 4m, 11m long and deep. The South has a shopping mall atmosphere was originally the west alley, facing the residential area north of the east site boundary is approaching the neighbors until the last minute. Mother and child clients are working together, often work-related stuff. Narrow frontage strip of land, surrounding environment fit different personalities clash, a lot of things we will continue to increase in the future. Advanced plan design elements such as a clue.

Secured parking in the narrow grounds, and essentially three-story room and arranging the desired structure was wooden and the budget. The client has a square image of the house, because space is needed on the construction scaffolding on the east side, with a footprint of 3.6m frontage, it is determined that the natural rate applied Volume sky. Spraying exterior walls and dark brown finish, each a different angle with the wall is the result of friendly faces to look like different viewing angle. Side of the road, only to be easily obtained from the daylight openings, windows and plumbing and ventilation all together on the east side. Because the parking lot does not have to cut our deep roots, and trace around the well site had been left in the upper half of the frontage for large glulam beams = 1.8m and has a Kyantireba.

Configuration space, together with three first-floor room 区切Rubeki, second floor studio space and one floor was divided into three loosely by seismic braces, the roof terrace is provided. For clients that have their own rhythm of life, a story his mother, the child's third floor, roof and floor and shared the second floor. Stairs connecting them, deliberately shifting positions to put down floors in the longitudinal direction, and walked around the room spinning long, as has been planned over the opening and storage racks. And more stuff, a little on the shelves and storage change the view from the opening, the change in sequence casual every day reminiscent of the street corners somewhere, we have the depth to the space and opportunity to enrich the lives of everyday ......more

House in Jingu Mae Tokyo | Claus En Kaan Architecten

Location Tokyo
Client :Private client
Design 2005
Completion 2007
gfa 76 m2
costs € 350.000 euro

The concept of this house adresses the paradoxical quality of Tokyo being a metropolis and a village at the same time. It is at the exact geographical center of the triangle formed by the Shibuya, Shinjuku and Akasaka-mitsuke hubs. Just off an important through-street, branching off a street with small shops, to finally reach a 2 meter wide irregular path. The essence of the design is the stacking of different atmosphere units with a specific individual character that is directly derived from their immediate environment. The basis is a two-storey detached house with a small garden, consisting of kitchen, living room, bedroom and bath. The house covers the site from front to back and leaves a diagonal strip open; the rooms are consequently opened towards this enclosed garden. On top of this house sits a two-storey house of unconventional character. It contains a double height space opening towards a roof terrace that overlooks the neighbourhood. The structure is topped by a triangular access shed and a circular pavillon that only allows for looking at the sky.....more

Private Residence | Sakura | Tokyo, Japan | Mount Fuji Architect Studio

principal use：private residence, office
site area：131.41m2
building area：75.43m2
total floor area：279.58m2
number of stories：3 story + 1 basement
structure：reinforced concrete structure, partly steel frame and stainless panel
design：2005.6 - 2005.12
construction：2006.1 - 2006.12

A home office for a couple planned in a residential neighborhood in Tokyo.The site is situated in an area where land costs are among the highest in Tokyo.The area is typically cluttered, like most residential areas in downtown Tokyo.
It is hard to say that quality of living environment deserves the price of land.
I felt that creating a better living environment was a top priority upon squeezing in yet another house into this neighborhood.What came to my mind were the two classic 'Glass Houses'※ by Mies and Philip Johnson.
The sense of freedom and openness that makes us want to walk naked inside these houses surely owes to the transparency of the glass itself, but it is the fact that the buildings are surrounded by a pleasant environment 'the forest' that counts the most.Since 'the forest' itself already provides a comfortable living environment, it is left for the architecture to separate internal to external atmospheres with thin, transparent membranes.
They clealy demonstrate that as long as there is an environment suitable for living, a 'house' is no more necessary.
What I looked to create here was a presence that would replace this 'forest'.
More precisely, I attempted to generate a quality living environment by placing two large, swirled belt-shaped surfaces on the premises.
The pair consists of self-standing walls measuring 7.5 m and 5 m high respectively, made of lace-like steel 3 mm thick that filters light like sunshine through foliage, with holes punched out in a floral pattern depicting cherry blossoms, a traditional Ise paper stencil pattern.
As we make our way into the abstracted forest of cherry blossoms, we are greeted by an 'environment filled with 'anticipation' for a living comfort.
ﾕ There, nothing can be found that suggests a 'setup' of a 'house'.
The place is a pure 'living environment' and is neither a symbol called 'house' nor a 'residential area.'
A bright depth, beyond the reach of urbanism, is born in Tokyo......more

O House, Meguro-ku,Tokyo By Power Unit Studio/kei'ichi IRIE

A private residence built on a residential street in Tokyo. Bed room and bathroom are arranged on the first floor. Living room, dining room and study room are on the second floor. A part of the space on the second floor is elevated slightly providing and study room giving a raised ceiling to the espective are on the first floor. Also the lifted space lets in light from the aisle side window and a lighting-yard. The space created by the sloping roof and inserted slanting wall gives a reverse perspective from both ends, and therefore providing a more spacious environment.

location:Meguro-ku, Tokyo
main use:private residence
site area:50.89m2
building area:54.98m2
total floor area:90.58m2
structure:reinforced concrete
complete:May.2004
More at Power Unit Studio

Heidi House,Uehara, Tokyo By Klein-Dytham

Heidi House is an extremely low cost studio and office space. Located in an up-central residential area of Tokyo, the house is set back from the adjoining site boundaries by 3 meters so no fire proofing of the external wall was necessary. This offset from the boundary line established the plan of the building.
A simple wooden framed structure was built and lined internally with plywood for lateral strength. An external layer of plywood was not needed structurally, so instead of this layer and a waterproof siding, we simply covered the structure with glass.
Long window openings were made in the plywood sheets in between the structural frame. The long thin nature of the structural frame inspired the 'Tyrollean' cutout shape.Internally the plywood skin was was painted white, while the wooden structural core of the building was wallpapered with black wallpaper.
The wooden ceiling structure was left exposed. Externally the house is EXTREMELY honest as it shows how the house was built. Seen obliquely from the side the window cut outs cannot be seen. Only when viewed straight on do the cutouts become visible.Internally the cutouts make the house walls look 'plywood' thin as there are no visible frames around the window openings. No insulation was used in the wall construction, the trapped air pockets used form a thermal buffer.
Many houses are made of wood in Japan, but because they are covered with metal or plastic siding, sometimes even fake bricks, you have no idea that the house is made of wood. It is very clear that this house is made of wood! The house has caused quite a stir in the neighbourhood, but the important thing is everyone seems to smile when they walk past!.....more