Hasta La Ideas

A tree-filled courtyard is glimpsed through the shimmering glass-brick facade of this house in Hiroshima, designed by Japanese architect Hiroshi Nakamura (+ movie).

Optical Glass House was constructed beside a busy road, so Hiroshi Nakamura and his studio NAP wanted to create a private oasis where residents could still make out the movements of people and traffic beyond the walls. “The serene soundless scenery of the passing cars and trams imparts richness to life in the house,” said the architect.

The garden is raised up to first floor level to make room for a garage below and the architects used 6,000 specially made glass blocks to build a two-storey-high wall in front of it. The wall was too tall to support itself, so the blocks had to be bolted together.

As light filters through the glass it creates dancing patterns across the walls and over a group of maple, ash and holly trees.

“The facade appears like a waterfall flowing downward, scattering light and filling the air with freshness,” said the architect.

An open living room is located just behind and is only separated from the garden by a lightweight metal curtain. This curtain folds back to reveal a second glass-block wall at the back of the room, which lines the edge of a central staircase.

Residents are faced with the staircase upon first entering the house. A water basin skylight is positioned immediately above and projects more light patterns onto the floor.

A split-level second garden is located at the back of the house, while the children’s rooms occupy the top floor, a dining room and kitchen are on the first floor and a hobby room, Japanese room and extra bedroom can be found on the ground floor.

Hiroshi Nakamura worked under Kengo Kuma before setting up his studio in 2002. Previous projects include the Roku Museum, a small art gallery with softly curving walls.

See more architecture in Japan, including a house fronted by a stack of gardens.

Photography is by Koji Fujii, Nacasa & Partners.

Here’s some information from the architects:

Optical Glass House

This house is sited among tall buildings in downtown Hiroshima, overlooking a street with many passing cars and trams. To obtain privacy and tranquility in these surroundings, we placed a garden and optical glass façade on the street side of the house. The garden is visible from all rooms, and the serene soundless scenery of the passing cars and trams imparts richness to life in the house.

Sunlight from the east, refracting through the glass, creates beautiful light patterns. Rain striking the water-basin skylight manifests water patterns on the entrance floor. Filtered light through the garden trees flickers on the living room floor, and a super lightweight curtain of sputter-coated metal dances in the wind. Although located downtown in a city, the house enables residents to enjoy the changing light and city moods, as the day passes, and live in awareness of the changing seasons.

Optical Glass Façade

A façade of some 6,000 pure-glass blocks (50mm x 235mm x 50mm) was employed. The pure-glass blocks, with their large mass-per-unit area, effectively shut out sound and enable the creation of an open, clearly articulated garden that admits the city scenery. To realize such a façade, glass casting was employed to produce glass of extremely high transparency from borosilicate, the raw material for optical glass. The casting process was exceedingly difficult, for it required both slow cooling to remove residual stress from within the glass, and high dimensional accuracy. Even then, however, the glass retained micro-level surface asperities, but we actively welcomed this effect, for it would produce unexpected optical illusions in the interior space.

Waterfall

So large was the 8.6m x 8.6m façade, it could not stand independently if constructed by laying rows of glass blocks a mere 50mm deep. We therefore punctured the glass blocks with holes and strung them on 75 stainless steel bolts suspended from the beam above the façade. Such a structure would be vulnerable to lateral stress, however, so along with the glass blocks, we also strung on stainless steel flat bars (40mm x 4mm) at 10 centimeter intervals. The flat bar is seated within the 50mm-thick glass block to render it invisible, and thus a uniform 6mm sealing joint between the glass blocks was achieved. The result – a transparent façade when seen from either the garden or the street. The façade appears like a waterfall flowing downward, scattering light and filling the air with freshness.

The glass block façade weighs around 13 tons. The supporting beam, if constructed of concrete, would therefore be of massive size. Employing steel frame reinforced concrete, we pre-tensioned the steel beam and gave it an upward camber. Then, after giving it the load of the façade, we cast concrete around the beam and, in this way, minimized its size.

Project name: Optical Glass House
Main purpose: Housing
Design: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Co.,Ltd.
Structure design: Yasushi Moribe
Contractor: Imai Corporation
Location: Naka-ku, Hiroshima-shi, Hitroshima, Japan
Site area: 243.73m2
Total Floor area: 363.51m2
Completion year: October,2012
Structure: R.C.structure

Above: site plan

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

Above: second floor plan

Above: section

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Japanese architect Kimihiko Okada has completed a spiralling house on stilts in Hiroshima.

Raised up by metal columns, the two-storey residence, named Toda House, wraps around a courtyard garden.

Residents can walk underneath the building into this central courtyard, where a staircase leads up into a first floor lobby.

From here, rooms wind anticlockwise around the building and incrementally climb upwards.

Balconies are located at both ends of the coil and overlook the sea beyond.

Two other stories we’ve published about Kimihiko Okada feature mountains of aluminium foil – see them both here.

Photography is by Toshiyuki Yano.

Here’s some more text from the architect:

The site is located in a residential area developed on a gentle perch in Hiroshima, overlooking a far view of the Inland Sea and Miyajima.

The land of this area is developed into platforms form with several levels.

The architecture was requested to have a view over the roof of the neighboring house, standing one level lower, and to consider security, for the site is located at the edge of the residential area, and to leave some space for extension when the client opens a small shop in the future.

To respond to the requests, the house is lifted from the ground.

Like a bird’s nest, it called up architecture’s primary function of relief from disturbance.

The house is open to the view and yet protected from the fear and environment.

Slab and roof consists of one continuous plate.

The variations of circulation and diverse spatial relations were achieved by placing a penetrating staircase.

The extended plate made possible the future extension and softened the impression from the ground level.

Spandrel wall changes its height accordingly to the thickness of slab.

Together with the slab, the spandrel wall creates the continuous but various environments.

Location: Hiroshima, Hiroshima

Principal use: private residence (extension; shop)

Structure: steel structure two-storey

Building area: 90.21sqm
Total floor area: 114.26sqm

Structural Engineer: Structured Environment
Mechanical Engineer: System Design Laboratory

Japanese architects Maker have completed a Hiroshima restaurant where timber slats on the ceiling descend around the dining tables. 

These vertical batons create privacy screens between tables and corridors at the Kurogane restaurant.

Hanging fabric creates additional screens between individual tables.

Maker also recently completed a hair salon with untreated timber booths and gauze partitions – see our earlier story here.

Photography is by Shigeki Orita.

Here are a few words from Maker:

Kurogane by Maker

Noncommittally, three-dimensionally, ‘Kurogane’, the restaurant of Hiroshima-styled teppan-yaki(dishes on a hot plate), is on the second floor of the building in the city area of Hiroshima.

The owner had wanted to make a restaurant of teppan-yaki familiar with women. We designed the clean natural space with wood based on her wish.

The most characteristic part is wooden louvers. These are used for partitions and the ceiling, and cover the inside of the restaurant.

Their layer and shade make us feel depth and a cubic effect.

Passing an entrance, there is the inside space directed by warming lightings and louvers.

louvered partitions vaguely divide seats and a service lead.

Because of them, visitors can observe visitor’s appearances through them, and give fine quickly service.

Louvers play functional and ornamental role and give a feel of unification.

This design is simple but three-dimensionally, and this restaurant makes good mood pursuing of distance between visitors and staffs.

See also:

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Tree Restaurant by Koichi Takada Architects	Tang Palace by FCJZ	Rosa’s by Gundry & Ducker

This colourful series of public toilets recently completed by Japanese architects Future Studios in Hiroshima have been designed to resemble origami cranes.

The 17 Hiroshima Park Restrooms come in three different shapes, but each one has a unique colour.

The restrooms are constructed entirely from concrete, which is punctured to create very small circular windows.

The paint used to colour each restroom can be wiped clean to allow easy maintenance.

More Japanese architecture on Dezeen »
More public toilets on Dezeen »

The following is from the architect:

Hiroshima Park Restrooms – Absolute Arrows

Hiroshima City Planning chose the design from a competition to be the standard. It is the unique public project that approximately 5 restrooms are mass-produced in parks per year as regular design of the city

First of all, I considered that what should embed in “city”. I was aware of designing “multitude” strongly, which is not “a ” restroom in a park. And they should be given a meaning as a whole of the infrastructure in the city.

I aim to make an absolute axis in the city by being embedded the direction in infrastructure building in the city. The mass-produced urban facilities have a triangular roof pointing north.

By building in same direction, each restrooms have same space by sunshine. The same space of restroom is omnipresence all over Hiroshima.

I designed 3 variations of plans in this project. I provide with 2 entrances of east and west side, so that the plan is able to turn the other way around as it functions whichever entrance.

Structure of the restroom is box frame type reinforced concrete construction. The roof is also made by concrete. Concrete is poured by the ruler of stainless steel in the edge of the acute angle part of the roof.

The roof finishes by a fluoric resin topcoat after FRP waterproofing. Therefore it is possible to put the different color every roof of the restrooms. Each location has a different color roof that matches the playground.

I incline the roof, the north side is high, the south side is low, to be able to look at the roof facing north from eye-level. A slit-shaped top light goes to the south and north in the center of the roof and creates lines toward north inside and outside of space.

Acrylic lighting windows and round ventilation holes in eastern and western wall, and acrylic lighting windows in southern wall, are inlayed.

They function that controlling the environment of the internal space. For the finish of the outer wall, I adopted the photocatalytic coating paints that the dirt is easy to come off.

17 restrooms in 17 parks are completed in May in 2011. It is built around five places sequentially every year. The public restrooms with absolute arrows are being embedded infinitely in all over Hiroshima-city.

Project data
Name of the project : Hiroshima Park Restrooms –Absolute Arrows-
architect: Bunzo Ogawa
Location : Hiroshima, Japan
Use: Public Restroom
Client: Hiroshima-city
Building area : A type 15.56sqm, B type 11.88sqm, C type 7.62sqm
Gross area: A type 13.09sqm, B type 10.10sqm, C type 5.30sqm
Building coverage ratio / 2%
Building scale / 1 story
Structure system / RC
Period of design / 2008.9-2009.2
Period of construction / 2009.4-

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See also:

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Public toilets by Plastik Architects	Royal Flush by Chris Briffa Architects	Lavatories by Shuichiro Yoshida Architects

Japanese architect Hayato Komatsu has completed the interiors for this clinic in Hiroshima, Japan, which is located within a shopping centre.

Due to the height of the original space, the architect has inserted a gabled ceiling to create a more intimate atmosphere and has left the walls of the treatment rooms slightly shorter, making a feature of the sloping ceiling.

The interior walls and ceiling are clad in strips of wood with an array of fluorescent tube lights on the sloping planes.

The clinic’s storefront façade provides passer-by’s with clear views into the clinic.

The treatment rooms are located at the rear of the space, carefully partitioned to prevent any direct views into them.

More clinics and medical facilities on Dezeen »
More interiors on Dezeen »

Here’s some more information from the architect:

This project is a plan for moving and reopening an internal clinic in a shopping mall on the outskirts of Hiroshima. The shopping mall has a high ceiling and, therefore, so does the clinic that occupies space within it.

The clinic’s surrounding corridors are bustling with shoppers. The client requested to make good use of the high ceiling. However, keeping the open space increases the risk of heating/cooling and ventilation problems.

So we inclined the ceiling to intonate the height, and we controlled the room space to adjust the volume of the room.

Furthermore, we made all the walls the same height and created space in between the walls and the ceiling like a partition style.

This showed the ceiling as “a big roof” spanning all rooms and so giving the space depth, brightness and a comfortable feeling.

In considering the privacy of people coming into the clinic, we managed, without closing the facade, to arrange each room to allow in light but yet in such a way to stop the direct view of outsiders.

In total, it looks like a wooden Kura (a traditional Japanese storehouse), but we feel that this magnanimous space gives people repose and comfort.

Site: Hiroshima,JPN
Principal use: Clinic
Floor area: 174.58m²
Completion: Dec.2010

See also:

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GKK Dental Ambulatory by Xarchitecten	D.Vision Dental Clinic by A1Architects	Be Clinique by Openlab Architects