Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Partitions that don’t reach the ceiling create the illusion of a larger space in this renovated flat in Japan by Naruse Inokuma Architects (+ slideshow).

Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Naruse Inokuma Architects completed the single-storey renovation in an older building and retained the existing ceiling beams, painting sections of the ceilings in five subtly different pale colours.

Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

The arrangement of colours doesn’t match up with the positions of the wooden divisions, so the individual rooms feel more spacious because the edge of the ceiling extends beyond the wall and can’t be seen.

Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

“We kept all the partitions at a height below the beams to create connected spaces while maintaining a sense of privacy,” said the architects.

Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

“The colours emphasise an expanse of space beyond the separate rooms and alter their expression dramatically with the smallest change in lighting,” they added.

Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

The compact flat includes two bedrooms separated by an atelier, plus a large combined living and dining room. The kitchen and bathroom are separated by the main entrance hall.

Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Wooden furniture and floorboards also feature throughout the flat.

Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Other projects by Naruse Inokuma on Dezeen include a shared occupancy house with communal areas for cooking, eating and relaxing and a renovated apartment with unfinished plywood and cement smeared over concrete.

Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

See more projects by Naruse Inokuma »
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Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Photography is by Masao Nishikawa.

Here’s a short description from the architects:


Skyroom

This is a renovation project for an old, 80m2 flat. Here, creating an expanse of space within a small, limited area was our biggest theme.

Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects

We kept all the partitions at a height below the beams to create connected spaces while maintaining a sense of privacy. The ceiling, crisscrossed with beams, was painted in five kinds of pale colours.

Skyroom by Naruse Inokuma Architects
Floor plan – click for larger image

Slightly shifted from the layout of the rooms, these colours emphasise an expanse of space beyond the separate rooms and alter their expression dramatically with the smallest change in lighting. Although they compose the small interiors of an 80m2 space, these rooms feel as though they embrace the wide-open sky that changes in expression every moment of every day.

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Inokuma Architects
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Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Unfinished plywood and cement smeared over concrete give a renovated Tokyo apartment the appearance of an elegant building site.

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Japanese architects Naruse Inokuma tore away wallpaper and applied additional layers of cement and putty to create a mottled surface over the exposed concrete.

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Sliding doors between the rooms of the Setagaya Flat are made from larch plywood and could be mistaken for construction hoarding.

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

The rooms have new plywood floors and are minimally furnished.

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Dezeen has featured a few projects from Naruse Inokuma Architects in the past, including an installation of forest sceneryclick here to see all our projects about Naruse Inokuma.

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Another recent project to feature unfinished walls is a Paris cafe filled with scientific apparatus – see the story here.

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Photography is by Masao Nishikawa.

Here are some more details from Naruse Inokuma Architects:


Setagaya Flat

This is an interior project of an apartment house built with box frame construction. The flat has favorable circumstances, a largish plan and location where third floor in category 1 low-rise exclusive residential district. But, on the other hand, there is difficulty that hardly modifies walls.

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

So we made elaborative adjustment for whole elements except the wall to create an expanse of space while using existing wall.

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

To be concrete, leaving a plan structure that organized by long corridor on the north side of the flat and rooms access from the corridor as it is, put dramatic finishing on one facade of each room and arranged a kitchen, display shelf and countertop by layer.

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

In a living room, those elements seem overlapped, and that makes a space more dynamic.

Setagaya Flat by Naruse Inokuma Architects

Four different finishing materials used; exposed concrete, cement rendering, putty with clear coating, and larch plywood. Exposed concrete is old skeleton and larch plywood is new. But cement rendering and putty, actually appeared on the wall after taking off wallpaper, and. we overlay cement and putty on them. By frequently using intermediate material, which is new but from old element, remarkable interior is realized. Here, old building fit in new well and age-old beauty remain.


See also:

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Sa House by
Yosuke Ichii
Kokura Tanaka House by Akinari TanakaAMA House by
Katsutoshi Sasaki