Hasta La Ideas

This Tokyo house by Japanese office Atelier Tekuto features a huge triangular window that angles up over the rooftops of surrounding houses to bring daylight in from above (+ slideshow).

The four-storey house is located within one of the city’s many dense residential areas, so Atelier Tekuto tried to make the most of natural light by framing a view of the sky and clouds, hence the project title Framing the Sky.

“We realise that skylights are the most important openings in urban houses,” said the architects. “It is because the sky is the only element of nature left in the urban context, and the skylight serves as an interface between people and nature.”

The huge window is positioned above a double-height living room on the second floor. It is set at an angle to bring light right across the space, and through to a kitchen and loft bedroom just behind.

“When you stand under this large skylight, you feel plenty of sunlight showering onto your body,” said the architects.

The two lower levels of the house both meet the ground, which allowed the architects to separate the main entrance from the garage access.

A small study sits behind the garage and has a ceiling of glass blocks to bring light in from above. These become the floor of the entrance corridor, leading residents through to a staircase that features wooden treads and a balustrade made of vertical pipes.

Wooden joinery features throughout, from the shelves and cupboards in the kitchen to desks, sideboards and seating areas elsewhere in the house.

Photography is by Toshihiro Sobajima.

Here’s some information from Atelier Tekuto:

Framing the Sky

This house is situated in an urban residential district at Aoyama in Tokyo. The polygon-shaped site has a 2.7 meter gap therefore we located the garage entrance on the basement floor on the south side and the main entrance to the house on the first floor on the west side.

The program requested by the clients are as follows; garage and bicycle parking space on the basement floor; main entrance, bathroom and master bedroom on the ground floor; Living room /dining space with kitchen on the second floor; and children’s room in the loft space. The main design concept of this house is “framing the sky”.

We focus on the relationship between nature and people in the city. We realise that skylights are the most important openings in the urban houses. It is because the sky is the only element of nature left in the urban context, and the skylight serves as an interface between people and nature.

The volume of the house is decided according to height restriction lines, and the size of the skylight is determined according to the maximum glass size.

When you stand under this large skylight, you feel a plenty of sunlight showering onto you body. It makes you feel that you are a part of nature in this blue urban sky.

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Building use: private house
Site area: 69.15m2
Building area: 38.72 sqm
Total floor area: 77.44 sqm

Construction: Reinforced concrete (basement) + steel
Architectural design: Yasuhiro Yamashita – Atelier Tekuto
Constructional design: Jun Sato – Jun Sato Structural Engineers
Construction management: Takahiro Watai – Nissho Kogyo Co.Ltd.

The post Tokyo house by Atelier Tekuto with
skylight designed to “frame the sky” appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese architects Atelier Tekuto have created a house in Hayama, Japan, by wrapping two 100 year-old wooden warehouses in a new faceted skin.

Glazed doors at one corner slide back to join the open-plan interior to a terrace, exposing one wooden column of the original structure.

New wooden furring strips and composite boards are laid over the old beams and supports of the two warehouses, which can still be seen inside.

Flooring removed from the lower storey of The Yachiyo house was re-used upstairs, while the ground floor is now covered in reclaimed bricks.

The house also contains a temporary shop.

More Japanese Houses on Dezeen »

The following is from the architects:

YACHIYO

Although Atelier Tekuto’s «Relocation» project has been underway since 2007, Yachiyo is the first «Re-location» building completed in Japan. The building is situated 100 meters from the ocean in Hayama, Kanagawa prefecture. This is used as a secondary residence and temporary shop.

PURPOSE

To make 100 year old materials last for another 100 years. To fuse old and new material, juxtaposing the regional and cultural differences in a parallel arrangement.

We treat sunlight as a material. A material that can be captured only for an instant. It has the ability to fuse the juxtaposing elements or emphasize their differences. It exists both within and outside the human concept of time.

Sunlight turns the interior space inside out. It highlights the dramatic structure as it permeates the building, accentuating the marriage between traditional and contemporary values. At night, custom handmade light fixtures let Yachiyo float into sight like a constellation fireflies.

Yachiyo – Japanese word meaning «a long time».

RELOCATION

Two abandoned warehouses built 100 and 120 years ago were chosen. In order to reinforce the structure, the two warehouses were wrapped with furring strips that also function as thin columns. Enhanced high-pressure wood wool cement boards which act as insulation were attached. This provided structural reinforcement, humidity control and thermal insulation all in one system.

The wrapping material was reduced to a thickness of 95mm in order to provide more interior space. Also, the preexisting material was treated in order to prevent infestation and provide resistance against the salty environment. The first floor is composed of eighty year old bricks made in Shanghai. The material of the previous first floor was then refinished and applied to the 2nd floor. In effect, disused materials were transported from distant locations and given new life.

Re-configuring Values

“Re-configuring Values” is a concept that will permeate the 21st Century. The following concepts are essential to this discussion:

Ecology: the conservation of the global environment – the most significant theme for this century – ought to be examined from a new standpoint, through new developments and re-configurations.

Cross-Culture: adopting specific local and regional characteristics in order to achieve not just simple integration between different architectural styles and cultures, but to create culture on an entirely new dimension.

Reconsideration of Time: a re-examination of the past in order to predict the future. An increased awareness of time as a phenomenon that can preserve local and regional differences in material and character.

It is essential to achieve a greater understanding of when to preserve, when to eliminate or when to maintain.

Based on these three approaches, we are working to “re-configure values” by recycling, reducing and relocating Japan’s traditional Minka houses in order to give them new life.

See also:

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Slit House by EASTERN Design Office	Tohma House by Hiroshi Horio Architects	House by Yoshio Oono Architect & Associates