Hasta La Ideas

This tiny gabled pharmacy is squeezed into a narrow alleyway between two towering apartment blocks in Osaka.

Japanese architects Yasuo Imazu of Ninkipen!, Toshikatsu Ienari and Kenta Fukunishi collaborated to design the project, under the collective identity TKY Japan.

Behind the glazed facade, an exposed skeleton of wooden columns and rafters surrounds the building’s long, thin interior.

A wood and steel staircase at the back of the pharmacy leads up to a mezzanine, positioned above an enclosed office.

You can see more projects by Ninkipen! here, including a bakery with an exposed concrete counter.

Photography is by Hiroki Kawata.

Here’s some more explanation from Yasuo Imazu:

This is a new construction of a Pharmacy, in the center of Osaka city area of Japan.

The site once used to be a farm road. When the World War II ended, a small house was built on the road and stayed there illegally for several ten years. After the house was removed, the site then became a residential land.

In front of this newly built pharmacy, there are remains of a sidewalk, which define an original function of the site used to have, thus the building is set back.

That the site was a road, and that there was a small illegally-built house, were the two historical contexts we valuated as the uniqueness of the site.

The form of the building follows the shape of the site with a gabled roof on top which realizes the simplest form of a house. The continuous ceiling which visually creates almost a linear perspective reflects the linear shape of the site, the path or the road.

Though it is surrounded by volumetric urban buildings, we kept the minimum volume of a single story house, recalling a persisting memory of the site, the little house.

The structure is consisted of simple steel-frame which allows the wood columns and rafters to be exposed, thus provides warm and intimate atmosphere to the customers.

Project name: Ogimachi Global Dispensing Pharmacy
Architect: TKY JAPAN（Toshikatsu Ienari, Kenta Fukunishi, Yasuo Imazu/ninkipen!

Use: dispensing pharmacy
Location: Osaka, Japan

Design: 2010.12〜2011.7
Construction: 2011.8〜2011.11

Site area: 96.22m2
Building area: 61.94m2
Total floor area: 61.94m2

Slanted walls pierced by square peepholes bisect this house in Osaka by architects ALPHAville.

These sloping interior walls create a three storey-high prism, which separates first and second floor living rooms from a contorted staircase.

The position of these angled walls creates triangular windows on the concrete exterior of the building, named House Folded, and a wonky ground-floor garage.

The house has one bedroom located on the top floor, which leads out to a secluded roof terrace.

This isn’t the first house with slanted walls by Japanese architects ALPHAville – see our earlier story about a residence divided by faceted timber panels.

Photography is by Kai Nakamura.

Here’s a more detailed description from ALPHAville:

House Folded

This is a 100m2 residence for a couple and their cats located in Osaka, Japan.

The typical method for designing a house would assign rectangular rooms with specific functions and lay out them. Such a design produces a series of rooms of similar size and causes monotonous spatial experiences.

Our approach was to avoid the conventional design practice and to create a structurally rational but spatially heterogeneous house.

On the assumption that there is a human being within the optimal spatial coordinates resulted from the site and living requirements, we used Voronoi line segments that divide equally the shortest distance to create spaces.

The actual trial and error involved the full use of 3D-CAD. First, the building’s shape was squashed in a parallelogram in order to keep an adequate distance from the site’s borders.

Second, the center wall was folded to divide the space into two, diagonal to the site on the first floor and parallel to the site on the third floor. Next, the floors were skipped, and the final step was to slope the roof.

In this way, various spaces came to be created so that continuous changes can be experienced as one moves along or through the bent wall.

The slits on east elevation that run from first to third floor introduces direct light into the space reflecting the folded wall beautifully through the highly rational structure with minimum wall girders.

At the same time, the slit on west elevation bring indirect light through the openings from behind the folded wall.

Therefore while the space along the folded wall is an interior space filled with direct light, it also has an outdoor- space-like feeling facing folded walls with shining openings reflected by indirect light.

We imagined a life in a building situated in a medium-density city where multiple buildings are connected via exterior in a loose relationship among man, building and nature, unlike in a city where each building is confined to each specific site.

In that sense, although what we proposed here is a single family house, this design model is also applicable to larger buildings such as collective housings, offices, or multi-use complexes in a rational and versatile way.

Information:

Use: residence
Site: Osaka, Japan
Site area: 75.93sqm
Building area: 40.00sqm
Total floor area: 102.03sqm

Building scale: 3 storeys
Structure system: reinforced concrete construction
Structural engineer: Eisuke Mitsuda (Mitsuda Structural Consultants)

See also:

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House in Kitakami by Nadamoto Yukiko	Roof on the Hill by ALPHAville	New Kyoto Town House by ALPHAville

A stark concrete multi-purpose space occupies the ground floor of this house in Osaka by Japanese architect Takeshi Hamada.

This sound-proofed studio/gallery space within the three storey House A is used for live music performances, art exhibitions and social gatherings.

The two upper levels of the house contain the private living areas and feature exposed timber columns and beams, as well as natural lighting.

Photography is by Yohei Sasakura.

More Japanese architecture on Dezeen »

Here is some more information from the architect:

House A

Concept
Narrow house in downtown, low cost, live studio, mixed structure

Background, Atmosphere

The location is Abeno-ward Osaka, Japan. Though it is a superb location just 10 minutes from Tennoji Station, it is in the downtown streets filled with traditional emotion, there are traditional tenement houses, old houses and shops, just 1 block from the main street. I planned the house in the narrow vacant land for 56-square-meters in this area. The house is light and open, and the residents can enjoy their hobbies.

Its owner, K families, those are a couple and one daughter, like music. Especially, their daughter, who is 27 years old, is a musician and received fifth winner in the recital. This family requested “Hobby Room, Live Studio” in their house that they can enjoy music. Sometimes, they will open mini concert with other band members and usually, they will use the room as an art gallery. And sometimes, they want to have a party with close friends by drinking. To maximize the locality with good access, that can create linkages between people through hobbies, such space was required.

Architectural Plan

Use as a distribution, I planned the first floor for “Hobby Room (studio and gallery and bar, live) ” and a few floors as a living space. For Live Studio, because high sound insulation is required, I used the RC sturucture for the first floor, and I considered soundproof for doors, sashs, ventilators, and among others. On the other hand, I tried to make cost down in total for the second and the third floor, by using simple space of Japanese traditional wooden structure.

Facade Picture

RC Fair – faced with a facade of spraying material. Stainless steel bay window adds accents.

The first floor, “Hobby Room”

To ensure maximum width of the building, the concrete formwork for the construction with adjacent separator and exterior insulation was used. As a result, interior walls and ceiling are fair – faced the decorative RC. For the floor, I adopted used scaffold boards of cedar wood. For the flexibility to cope with the internal scene, the lighting equipment and orientation can be adjusted to the light.

The third floor, LDK
To achieve low cost, a few floor living space has a simple wooden structure and space. Especially, the third floor studio is a one room space with no joinery. By exposing the column and beam with bracing, the spatial and visual spread is ensured. The floor is solid wood used in unpainted pine. Since the change in color and luster through the years, they can enjoy the aging of the material.

The Second Floor
There are daughter’s and parents’ bedroom with bath, toilet and kitchen. Since it’s difficult to get enough light by approaching the neighbours, I used top lights and side lights to receive natural ligjhts as much as possible. The floor is solid wood used in unpainted pine.

Live Scene
Once or twice a month, band friends of the owner gather to perform a concert. Live in the past, overcrowded by standing audience, ended in great success.

Overview
House Name: “House A”
Location: Abeno-ward, Osaka, JAPAN
Construction: August 2010 – March 2011
Structure: First Floor – Reinforced Concrete, Second and Third Floor – Wooden Structure
Site Area: 59.34 sq m
Building Area: 45.82 sq m
Floor Area: 128.28 sq m; 1F (43.66 sq m) 2F (54.82 sq m) 3F (38.80 sq m)
Architect: Takeshi Hamada

Click above for larger image

See also:

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House in Kohgo by Yutaka Yoshida Architect & Associates	Knot by Apollo Architects & Associates	House in Minamimachi 3 by Suppose Design Office

Here’s a house in Osaka, Japan, by Yoshihara McKee Architects of New York and Tokyo.

Called Minamikawa House, the residence has a sloping lawn that rises from street level to meet the living areas, which are suspended over walkways beneath either side of the house.

Rooms on the lower floor are organised in wooden, glass and concrete volumes, while the upper floor that contains bedrooms and bathrooms is more enclosed.

“The site is relatively bigger than many of the Japanese projects featured recently, and it afforded us the opportunity to play with landscape, changes in level, and a generally more intricate series of design moves,” says Marcello Pacheco of Yoshihara McKee Architects.

See also: Posen Loft by Yoshihara McKee Architects

More Japanese houses on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from the architects:

Although designed to harmonize comfortably with the other residences in this typical suburban landscape, the Minamigawa house is a departure from traditional Japanese home design.

Unlike its neighbors each of which presents a bland façade to the street with a formally defined house and garden hidden behind it this home merges indoor and outdoor spaces into a unified whole.

The garden climbs up from street level, penetrating the built form and pulling the eye beyond the structure’s surface to a planted terrace overlooking the street.

At the top of the incline, the primary living spaces within the open concrete and glass frame take advantage of the views to the garden and an adjacent park, while wood-clad boxes offer domestic warmth and privacy.

Flowing back and forth between house and garden, the design blurs the distinction between what is “inside” and what is “outside.”

The third floor, with more enclosed rooms well above eye and street level, offers added privacy.

Throughout, a palette of simple building materials enhances the unconventional design, while the balanced scale of all the elements contributes a quiet informality.

See also:

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House in Osaka by Kazuya Morita Architecture Studio	Hair salon in Osaka by Teruhiro Yanagihara	Shop in Osaka by Facet Studio

Here’s another hair salon by Japanese designer Teruhiro Yanagihara, this time located in central Osaka, Japan, featuring free-standing mirrored boxes.

Called NE, the project hides different areas of the salon so as not to reveal the function of the space.

A hair washing area is located inside a brick room with concrete steps sitting in front of it.

The steps double up as a waiting area, providing seating and display surfaces.

Lights and doors to the storage rooms are flush with the walls and fold out to reveal their functions.

Photographs are by Takumi Ota.

More salons on Dezeen »
More projects by Isolation Unit/Teruhiro Yanagihara »

The following information is from Yanagihara:

NE, located in central Osaka, is a hair dressers shop for a young couple that started up their own business.

The small space doesn’t reveal it’s actual purpose and is conceived as a narrative sequence of abstracted objects and volumes.

An iconic stair, that contains the wash- and backroom, marks the waiting area and serves as seating accomodation and display.

Free-standing mirrored screens are positioned in the otherwise empty cutting area like sculptures.

The lights and doors to the storage fold our of the walls and let them appear like made of sheets of paper.

See also:

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KIZUKI + LIM by Teruhiro Yanagihara	Isolation Unit completes Tokyo hair salon	Ricort by Isolation Unit