Hasta La Ideas

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.

Metal pipes and lightbulbs previously used on squid fishing boats are used to make a sculptural light that hangs from a double-height space in the centre of this Aesop skincare store in Kyoto (+ slideshow).

The refurbished interior by Torafu Architects for Australian brand Aesop reuses lightbulbs originally utilised at sea to attract squid.

“By utilising the height of the vaulted ceiling, we hung squid fishing boat pendant lights like a mobile and filled the space with light,” said the architects.

Aesop Kawaramachi comprises a narrow 3.2-metre-wide retail space with exposed concrete walls, roughly covered with white paint along the top and bottom of the ground floor.

Products are displayed on shelves made from textured grey board that are hung next to turquoise sinks.

Alow bench lines the right side of the store and a counter sits in the middle of the space below the cluster of lights.

A staircase at the rear leads to a first-floor gallery space, which overlooks the front of the store and the lighting feature.

This is the studio’s fourth collaboration with Aesop in Japan. Torafu Architects also designed Aesop Shin-Marunouchi, Aesop Yokohama Bay Quarter and Aesop Shibuya. Each Aesop store differs and in an interview with Aesop founder Dennis Paphitis, he told Dezeen that he was “horrified at the thought of a soulless chain”.

Photography is by Takumi Ota.

Here is some more information from the architects:

Aesop Kawaramachi

For Australian skin care brand Aesop, we planned the interior and exterior of the new store in Kawaramachi, Kyoto. The store is located on the 1st floor of a building on a busy shopping street. A narrow 3.2m width, 19.7m depth with a spatial height of 6.2m vaulted ceiling.

We approached the project by making the most out of the original building structure with the addition of careful alteration. We brought functional part of the store compactly to the narrow space by the entrance, the back space will be a hospitality area consisting of sizeable counter and long bench, where customer can relax.

By utilising the height of the vaulted ceiling, we hung squid fishing boat pendant lights like a mobile and filled the space with light. As you go upstairs, you will find the 2nd floor as a gallery space, providing opportunity for customers to meet new people.

Flexible board, used for the product shelf is made unburnable and has texture of mortar, taking advantage of its original unique feature. Together with the porous Ōya stone used for flooring, it provides a soft, natural palette that lends a pervasive sense of calm from the moment of entry.

For the façade, we covered entirely with flexible board, using interior elements, such as accent green colour and squid fishing boat lamp, in order for people to realise continuity in space, letting the store stand out even in the colourful shopping street.

Due to the location on the busy street where many travellers and locals come by, our store design is aimed to blend as part of new Kyoto culture by providing casual yet cosy store space.

Principle use: SHOP
Facility design: ENDO-Lighting, maxray (Lightings)
Production: &S
Credit: Graphics: Aesop
Site area: Kawaramachi, Kyoto
Total floor area: 86m2
Design period: 2013.09-2013.11
Construction period: 2013.11-12

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features squid fishing lamps appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese architect Kengo Kuma built this temporary hut using cedar, ETFE plastic and magnets to pay tribute to a humble dwelling chronicled by Japanese author Kamono Chomei over 800 years ago (+ slideshow).

In his seminal book Hōjōki, or “An Account of My Hut”, Chomei outlines his experiences living alone in a three-by-three-metre hut that has since become synonymous with the history of Japanese dwellings in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Kengo Kuma and Associates wanted to create a modern interpretation of the hut using contemporary materials and construction techniques.

“Kamono Chomei built Hojo-an as a movable house at the time of the turbulent medieval age in Japan,” explain the architects. “To emphasize his idea of ‘mobility’ we made a combination of ETFE sheets that can be rolled up and portable.”

Magnets are fixed onto a latticed framework of cedar beams and hold the plastic sheets in a sandwich structure. “The three soft sheets are combined to a single unit, and grow into a hard box,” added the architects.

The hut was constructed at Kyoto’s Shigamo Shrine, where Chomei’s home is said to have stood, and it remained in place until December.

Other recent projects by Kengo Kuma include the Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center in Tokyo and a pharmacy and clinic with plants growing on its facade. See more stories about Kengo Kuma and Associates.

Photography is by Rei Niwa.

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Kengo Kuma and Associates appeared first on Dezeen.

Rather than erasing all trace of this Kyoto townhouse’s previous owners, Japanese architects Q-Architecture Laboratory preserved the earlier haphazard extensions as a timeline of the building’s history.

Timeline Machiya is a traditional Kyoto townhouse, called a Kyo-machiya. Originally built in around 1935, it had been empty for the past decade.

An L-shaped extension was added to the house in between 1965 and 1980, but rather than remove this later addition, the architects chose to rehabilitate it for modern use.

On the ground floor, rooms are now arranged around the raised wood-panelled tatami room, which is traditionally used for tea ceremonies.

A new kitchen has been installed along the corridor linking the hall to the family area.

The ground floor bathroom has been extended and panelled in wood.

Stairs lead up from the hall to a desk area, children’s bedroom and master bedroom.

A ladder reaches up into the attic, where the original roof beams are exposed and a rooflight has been added.

See all our stories about Japanese houses »

Photographs are by Kai Nakamura Photography.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

This is a combined restoration/remodel of an old Kyo-machiya (Kyoto-style traditional urban dwelling) in north Kyoto city. It was built circa 1935 and had been empty for the last ten years. It is composed of the original structure (omoya) and a first-floor extension to the south and west sides circa 1965-80.

The floor plan and the finishing materials changed significantly through a series of haphazard modifications. However, there also existed some attractive elements that effectively captured the “timeline” of the house as it passed through this series of renovations.

In particular, the L-shaped addition created a novel linkage between the omoya and garden which would rarely be seen in a newly-built house.

The clients lived in San Francisco for 15 years prior to moving to Kyoto. From the onset, they had a clear demand (unusual for Japanese) for a home that combined authentic and aesthetically rewarding old elements with simple, undisruptive new ones.

In light of these demands, an approach to the project was developed: to re-realise these impromptu renovations and effectively incorporate them into a “next life” for the structure.

In summary:
1. reinforcement/repair of damaged portions,
2. capturing the feeling of an accumulated timeline,
3. sunken floor (doma) transition from omoya to outside/garden, and
4. utilising the extension area for daily living (e.g., kitchen, dining)

There exist two typical approaches to remodeling Kyo-machiya. One is to preserve only the basic structure (or shell) and modernise the interior. The second is to regard the structure as a traditional “artifact” and restore it to its original state.

Although I don’t intend to rate these two approaches, both share the perspective of focusing on one point in time (the present or the origin), and not considering the passage of time running through the home.

Many Kyo-machiya built in the early 20th century have undergone numerous renovations over the years, and these events are generally not acknowledged in the new design.

Unadmirable remodelings are often encountered, but they are indeed a part of the accumulated architectural history. I wonder if we can gently accept this timeline as valid, and “layer on” a new life rather than wiping an old one away.

Above: the house in 1935

“Timeline Machiya” was named by the client to represent the passing of time, both of the structure itself, but also of the project, from the initial consulting through to the construction and finishing.

Above: the house circa 1950

This secondary timeline was also deemed important, as a variety of design changes were made as the project progressed and the evolving structure revealed new approaches and ideas.

Above: the house circa 1965

Above: the house circa 1980

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Q-Architecture Laboratory appeared first on Dezeen.

This boutique by Japanese designers Nendo is full of fake doors.

The extra doors break up sight lines in the long narrow Indulgi clothes store in Kyoto, meaning customers must explore the interior if they want to see all the merchandise.

Each door forms part of the shop’s display system, sporting rails, hooks, shelving and mirrors.

Back in 2009, architects Ninkipen! created a similarly surreal but more sinister shop lined with eleven fake doors and only one real exit, while Nendo themselves caused controversy among our readers last year with their mental health clinic where none of the doors open so patients and staff must open sections of the walls to move around – see what all the fuss is about in our earlier story or read more about it in the Dezeen Book of Ideas.

You can also watch Oki Sato of Nendo talking about his work in our interview on Dezeen Screen and see all our stories about Nendo here.

Photographs are by Daici Ano.

Here are some more details from Nendo:

Indulgi

A new shop “INDULGI” designed by nendo opened in Kyoto, Japan. A small clothing shop in Kyoto’s Nakakyo district.

The deep, narrow space has good sightlines, but this can be dangerous, too: a shop can look messy and the interior space simply uninteresting if visitors can see all its products in one glance.

We decided to add shielding elements to create a space that could never be seen in its entirety, one in which different elements appear and disappear from view, changing customers’ experience of the shop as they move about it.

Walls create an over-strong sense of pressure, and the space already contained a number of doors, so we added even more doors to it. We set the doors open and closed at different angles to control the degree of visibility, and the mix of ‘real’ and ‘fake’ doors gives the space a slight sense of surreality.

We added functionality to the ‘fake’ doors, using them for hangers, shelving and mirrors, and furnished them with fixtures that spill out from inside in different colours and textures to create even more variation in the space.

Opening one door brings not only surprise but the desire to open the next, creating a space that evokes curiosity in all its visitors.

53-1 Takakura Higashi-hairu,
Nakagyo-ku Sanjo-Street,
Kyoto 604-8111