Hasta La Ideas

Japanese studio Level Architects squeezed this all-black house onto a narrow plot in Tokyo‘s Fukasawa district, adding sloping offset walls around the lower floors to protect residents’ privacy (+ slideshow).

Confronted with a long, narrow site measuring 4.6 by 17.3 metres, Level Architects‘ main concern was to create a sense of spaciousness and introduce natural light to the four-storey interior of House in Fukasawa. But this had to be done without allowing other people to see inside.

“Rather than allowing the constraining width of the plot to be felt, the goal was to create the illusion of an open connection with the surrounding area while still instilling the sense of privacy desired by most home owners within Tokyo,” said the architect.

Privacy is achieved through the windowless surfaces of the two long facades. Walls also extend from the lower storeys on the building’s shorter sides to restrict views of the interior from the surrounding streets.

The sloping roofline at the rear of the property was dictated by local building regulations, while an inclined wall above the garage allows eastern light to enter the open-plan first floor and blocks direct light from the setting sun.

A skylight at the centre of the house creates a bright area over a white-painted iron staircase that extends between all four storeys. Featuring suspended treads and minimal balustrades, it allows daylight to permeate the lower floors.

The house’s living spaces are all located on the first floor. A double-height living room with full-height windows and a terrace deliberately contrasts with the low-ceilings of the space containing the kitchen and dining area.

Bench seating surrounds two sides of the living room, while a stepped unit mounted on the other wall creates a desk and shelving which continues onto the raised level that leads to the kitchen.

The ceiling heights of the two bedrooms above differ due to the changes in the height of the spaces below. One also opens out to a secluded balcony.

A narrow loft creates a quiet study at the very top of the house, while the ground floor accommodates bathrooms, a garage and traditional Japanese room lined with tatami mats.

Here’s some project text from the architects:

House in Fukasawa, Tokyo, Japan

Located in a quiet neighbourhood where the average house is 2 stories high, the site has a narrow dimension of 4.6 meters wide and 17.3 meters long; very typical of a Tokyo city centre lot. Though the site is narrow, the length of the site created a focal point in the design. Rather than allowing the constraining width of the plot to be felt, the goal was to create the illusion of an open connection with the surrounding area while still instilling the sense of privacy desired by most home owners within Tokyo.

In order to create that sense of privacy, a wall design was incorporated on the North and South sides of the home. The southern wall is cut away in a manner which allows the eastern light to fill the interior of the house, but at the same time shield the inhabitants from the harsh rays of the setting sun. The northern wall is utilised as a reflecting board by capturing the southern light and brightening the interior, all the way down to the first floor where light is hardest to reach.

The second floor level, which is completely open and connected, utilises a very high ceiling for the living room and a low ceiling for the kitchen to differentiate space. The living room is also designed with a set of steps running around three sides of the room to create a built-in sofa and activity space where cushions can be placed, amplifying the sense of openness. The centre of the house hosts an iron staircase and top light which allows for light to filter down through the house, generating unique atmospheres which separate the individual spaces.

The third floor is broken up by different room heights as a result of the design of the second level but which is all connected around the staircase. The Master Bedroom incorporates a slanted ceiling, a result of the setback code common around the city of Tokyo, but which adds a unique element to the room. The loft space opens up to the stairwell, exposing the room to the indirect light coming down from the ceiling window.

The design adjustments made in the section planning of the house emphasised the idea of a long house, one which generates a creative use of line-of-sight and height differentiations to create the sense of a house larger than its narrow width.

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reveals little to its neighbours appeared first on Dezeen.

A concrete tunnel slices through the base of this Tokyo house by Japanese architect Makiko Tsukada, creating a round hole in the facade that reveals the underside of a staircase (+ slideshow).

Makiko Tsukada designed Tunnel House for a site facing a T-junction, so her concept was to produce a form that appears as a continuation of the road. The result is a curving container that cuts through the entire ground floor.

“Our design intention is to provide a visual extension of the street on the site so that it creates a virtual crossroads,” said Tsukada.

The rest of the house is planned around the tunnel, creating a series of unusual features that include a floating steel floor, a dining table beneath a staircase, a triple-height courtyard and a bedroom without a ceiling.

The architect categorises these spaces as uchi, which means “in the tunnel”, and soto, which means “out of the tunnel”.

“One of the visitors’ comments was that ‘tunnel-uchi’ and ‘tunnel-soto’ betray one’s sense of space, as one feels like being outside while actually being inside the house,” she explained.

A glazed wall exposes the full outline of the tunnel from the house’s entrance. Inside, the structure is revealed to be wrapping around a pair of lidless boxes that contain the main bedroom and bathroom.

“From the bedroom box, one can see the view of the entire ‘tunnel-uchi’ space as if seeing an exterior view from a rooftop,” said Tsukada.

Two double-height spaces behind the curving concrete accommodate a small study and a toilet. Glass doors lead out from spaces into the simple courtyard, which is sandwiched in between.

A staircase leads up onto the top of the tunnel, which doubles as a mezzanine walkway. Residents can then access a guest bedroom and dining room, located on the suspended steel floor that provides the uppermost storey.

The dining table sits over the stairwell and has a mirrored underside that creates upside-down reflections.

Photography is by Shinkenchiku-sha.

Read on for a project description from Makiko Tsukada:

Tunnel House

The site is at the end of a T-junction. Our design intention is to provide a visual extension of the street on the site so that it creates a virtual cross road. The interior space and the exterior space are connected by carving out a part of the volume along the extended axis of the street. The tunnel-like configuration is intended to activate both “uchi” (in the tunnel) and “soto” (out of the tunnel) spaces.

The open side of the quarter cylinder is enclosed by glass. The “tunnel-uchi” comprises two small boxes containing a bedroom and a bathroom respectively. The bedroom is enclosed by screen-like partitions and its ceiling is open. From the bedroom box, one can see the view of the entire “tunnel-uchi” space from there as if seeing an exterior view from a rooftop.

The opening at the side of the tunnel is connected to the “tunnel-soto” space. “Tunnel-soto” space is an interior space where the light that is cascading down along the tunnel surface from the oblong top light and the light coming down from the courtyard intersect each other three-dimensionally.

When going up the stairs, one can see the entire “tunnel-soto” space. From the gap of the floating steel floor, one can see the reflected image of “tunnel-soto” space on the mirrored surface on the rear side of the tabletop on the second floor. The floating steel floor and the super-thin 6mm thick table give the space a surreal atmosphere of floating and expansion, while creating a sharp contrast with the immense volume of the tunnel.

One of the visitors’ comments was that “tunnel-uchi” space and “tunnel-soto” spaces betray one’s sense of space, as one feels like being outside while actually being inside the house. By experiencing repeated reversals of the interior and the exterior spaces (betrayed feelings), one probably can feel a sense of expansion and openness in this tunnel house.

Location: Suginami-ku, Tokyo
Structure: Reinforced Concrete and Steel
Principal Use: Residence, Office
Site Area: 82.39m2
Total Floor Area: 87.17m2 (43.65m2/1F, 43.52m2/2F)
Structural Engineer: Taizen Nieda and Taizo Komatsu

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Tokyo house by Makiko Tsukada appeared first on Dezeen.

Pointed doorways and openings throughout this house in Kyoto, Japan, were designed by Alts Design Office to mimic the building’s gabled profile (+ slideshow).

Named Hazukashi House, the two-storey family residence was designed by local firm Alts Design Office to provide a family home. It is fronted by a white-rendered facade with a shallow-pitched roof.

Due to its narrow width, the building appears disproportionally tall. The architects chose to emphasise this characteristic by creating doorways, windows and shelving units that all share similar proportions.

The house centres around a double-height dining room, which is visually connected to every other room. The walls are lined with timber panels and a wooden staircase folds around one corner.

“This is the space which connects the family’s bonds and also achieves dynamic functions,” explained architects Sumiou Mizumoto and Yoshitaka Kuga.

“It captures the light and diverse wind, while taking advantage of the antique material the client demanded,” they added.

A mezzanine corridor overlooks the space from a storey above, linking children’s rooms at the back with a master bedroom and study at the front. This is flanked by a square grid of bookshelves.

On the ground floor, a living room is situated at the front and residents have to step up to it from the dining room.

A kitchen positioned on the opposite side is divided into two sections by a built-in worktop, so a parent preparing dinner can keep an eye on children sitting at a counter beyond.

Light bulbs hang low from the ceiling on cables to direct light onto surfaces. Others are fixed to the walls and angled in different directions.

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Hazukashi House by Alts Design Office appeared first on Dezeen.

Katsutoshi Sasaki + Associates built this unusually skinny house on a three-metre-wide site in a residential district of Aichi Prefecture, Japan (+ slideshow).

To accommodate for its narrow width, the two-storey Imai house stretches out along most of the 21-metre-long plot. There was no room for corridors, so the interior is arranged as a simple sequence of rooms, one after another.

Japanese studio Katsutoshi Sasaki + Associates adapted the proportions of each space to suit its function, so the living room features a double-height ceiling while the children’s sleeping space is a 1.3-metre-high loft.

“We adopted a way to construct a house by reinterpreting scale, natural light, and the use of each room,” said the architects.

The ground floor is recessed to make room for a sheltered driveway at the front of the plot. Here, a wall slides open to lead into a kitchen and dining room that takes up most of the ground floor.

A wooden staircase spirals up toward the living room, located at the centre of the first floor, while a second set of steps angles up to meet a secluded roof terrace at the front of the house.

This terrace is fronted by large panels of glazing, which help to bring natural light and ventilation into the living room from above.

There wasn’t enough space on the site to create a separate garden, so the architects also added a small indoor patio at the rear of the ground floor, featuring a wall that slides open.

A long narrow space between the living room and master bedroom functions as a children’s room. The sleeping space is raised up from the floor and includes an assortment of small square windows, while built-in shelves create a study desk along the opposite wall.

According to the architects, the rooms could become interchangeable. “The space setting becomes neutral; you can sleep, dine or relax whenever you like. For example, dining in the inner garden may be more enjoyable than in the dining room,” they said.

Photography is by the architects.

Here’s a project description from Katsutoshi Sasaki + Associates:

Imai

A house built on a narrow strip of land of 3m wide and 21m long. For this ground that looks too long and tight, we adopted a way to construct a house by reinterpreting scale, natural light, and the use of each room. Instead of setting one concept to design it, we made five specific proposals.

1: Balancing of scale and light

Height of each room is adjusted according to the number of users and the use of the room. For example, children’s bedroom is 1.3m high while the living room is 4.4m. The room used by one person has limited natural light while the space people gather is much brighter. Balancing of scale and light brings a character to simple one room.

2: Exterior on the edge

The ground was too narrow to allow any space for garden, so we set an inner garden at the end of the ground floor and a terrace on the north end of the second floor. High window in the living room is designed not only to let in light, but also to provide ventilation route in summer to discharge the heat accumulated up on the ceiling plane.

3: Dismantling

By dismantling living room and dining room, we avoided large area concentrated to one place. As these spaces that have public nature are dispersed, lines of flow work effectively. Also, by de-concentrating the factors required to children’s room such as sleep, storage or study, we can reduce the floor space of children’s bedroom while sharing space for other functions of storage and study by entire family.

4: Unrestricting

We suggested the way of living to utilise the space other than wet areas (kitchen, bathroom etc) without restricting its purpose. In some, the space setting becomes neutral; you can sleep, dine or relax whenever you like. For example, dining in inner garden may be more enjoyable than in dining room.

5: Overlapping

By overlapping multiple uses on one space, efficiency of floor space is improved. Corridor as desk space, inner garden as dining or guest room, and so on. This narrow and long building that could be described as all lines of flow, is designed as functional, effective and liberating space by applying these operations.

Project name: Imai
Location: Okazaki, Aichi, Japan
Site area: 71.19 sqm
Built area: 42.64 sqm
Total floor area: 69.49 sqm
Type of construction: wooden, steel
Exterior materials: Metal finish
Interior materials: paint finish
Design team: Katsutoshi Sasaki + Associates
Structure company : Tatsumi Terado Structural Studio
Construction company: Inoue construction Ltd.

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is just three metres wide appeared first on Dezeen.

The three-layered facade of this riverside house in Tsukubamirai, Japan, was intended by local studio Kichi Architectural Design to reference rippling water (+ slideshow).

Named Ripple, the three-storey family home has a blank white facade comprising three windowless walls,  which incrementally increase in size. Once conceals a balcony, while another screens the house’s entrance.

“The facade which consists of three white outer walls, is suggestive of triple ripples on the surface of the river,” said Naoyuki Kikkawa, architect and co-founder of Kichi Architectural Design.

The house is set back from the nearby river and is surrounded by cherry blossom trees, which the architect says are typical of this area.

“It is a house that enables its residents to live closely with the cherry trees which manifest all kinds of expressions with the changing of the seasons in Japan,” he said.

The house has a long and narrow plan, with a semi-enclosed courtyard at its centre and a sheltered patio at the back.

Unlike the austere street facade, the rear elevation is fully glazed to bring light into the building and offer residents views out towards the river.

“Based on the shape of the site, one that stretches in a narrow strip toward the cherry trees, I conceived the shape of the house, a U-shaped one, so that every one of its rooms would fully benefit from the light,” said Kikkawa.

The house’s living, dining and kitchen areas occupy one room at the rear of the house. A void in the floorplate overhead creates a double-height space along one edge, while the sheltered patio provides an outdoor dining area.

A lightweight steel staircase leads up to bedrooms and bathrooms on the first floor, then continues up to one of two lofts on the level above.

The second loft sits above the children’s bedroom at the front of the house and can be accessed via a pair two ladders. Glass doors also open the space out to the balcony in front.

Kichi Architectural Design is led by Naoyuki Kikkawa and partner Manami Kikkawa. The studio also recently completed the cube-shaped House of Kubogaoka and a converted farmyard barn named Scandinavian Middle.

Photography is by Ippei Shinzawa.

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by Kichi Architectural Design appeared first on Dezeen.