Hasta La Ideas

This house in Saitama, Japan, by architects SNARK and OUVI has bronze-coloured walls and a terrace cut out from the roof (+ slideshow).

The three-storey residence is located on a small corner plot within the suburban town of Honjyo. The building follows the irregular outline of the site, but is set back on one side to leave enough space for a car parking area.

The stripy metal cladding covers the entire exterior, wrapping over the roof and across the front door.

Behind the cladding, the house has a simple timber frame. Criss-crossing beams are revealed on the ceiling over the ground floor, but the structure is concealed elsewhere inside the house.

The architects added tall narrow windows to three elevations. The first and second floors are set back from the windows, creating triangular lightwells that let daylight through the building.

A steel staircase with timber treads extends up through the centre of the house, acting as an informal screen between rooms. On the ground floor it separates the living room from the kitchen, while on the first floor it splits the largest of two bedrooms into a sleeping area and study.

The uppermost floor contains a second living room, which opens out to the rooftop terrace.

This isn’t the first time Japanese studios SNARK and OUVI have teamed up on a project. The pair previously collaborated on a pair of apartment blocks that look like clusters of houses.

See more houses in Japan, including a house with two trees inside it.

Photography is by Ippei Shinzawa.

Here’s a project description from SNARK:

House in Keyaki

Honjyo-shi is a small area located in Saitama Prefecture. It is an hour and a half by car from Tokyo, Japan. Almost all residents here always use their own cars when they go somewhere because there is no available public transportation like trains and buses. This means that we need to consider providing parking spaces when building new houses within this area.

First, when we thought the outline of this house, we allotted the proper setbacks within the site. From this, we came up with a car parking space and a small garden. At the same time, we could get enough sunlight from every directions.

Second, we designed three narrow windows on the south, east and west side of the house. Then we designed triangle voids in front of these windows on the second floor.

These voids provided visual connections to the outside and inside of the house. And people inside this house can anticipate the presence of each other within different spaces or rooms. You could feel how the sunlight changes anytime as well as the changes in season.

Finally, we set some furniture on the border of the triangle voids and each places. The inner space of this architecture is divided into smaller spaces and it can be adjusted depending on the resident’s preference.

Architects: Sunao Koase / SNARK (Sunao Koase, Yu Yamada) + Shin Yokoo / OUVI
Structural engineer: Shin Yokoo / OUVI
General constructors: Yasumatsu Takken

Location: Honjyo city, Saitama, Japan
Site area: 132.24 sqm
Built area: 55.54 sqm
Floor area: 103.13 sqm
Number of floors: 2
Structure: wood

Design: 2011.4-2012.3
Construction: 2012.3-2012.7

Above: ground floor plan – click for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click for larger image

Above: second floor plan – click for larger image

Above: cross section one – click for larger image

Above: cross section two – click for larger image

The post House in Keyaki by SNARK
and OUVI appeared first on Dezeen.

A bedroom and bathroom are hidden inside a white box in this converted warehouse by Japanese architects Airhouse Design Office (+ slideshow).

Located in Yoro, a small town in Gifu Prefecture, the main space of the house is on the first floor of the converted warehouse, accessed via a staircase inside the ground-floor garage.

Airhouse Design Office inserted a large white box in the centre of the space, creating private rooms inside and a loft above.

Designed for a couple who are keen on cooking, the focal point of the house is the large kitchen.

The kitchen units were made from ash, while artificial marble was used on the worktops and table.

To minimise heat loss in the large space, a thick layer of urethane foam was added to the walls and ceiling before they were covered in plywood panels.

The loft is accessed by a wide white staircase and used as a children’s bedroom.

Inside the box is the main bedroom, painted a deep shade of purple, a lime green bathroom and a separate toilet.

Airhouse Design Office was founded by architect Keiichi Kiriyama in 2009 and is based in Ogaki, a city in Gifu Prefecture.

Other houses in Japan we’ve featured lately include a building based on the Fibonacci mathematical sequence and an extension featuring tree trunks that stretch from floor to ceiling– see all Japanese houses.

Photographs are by Toshiyuki Yano.

Here’s some more information from the architect:

House in Yoro

One of our client’s major requirements was for a living space where the presence of the family would always be felt. In response, we devised a single-room layout without columns that took advantage of the distinctive features of the existing warehouse.

A large kitchen was installed to cater to the needs of the food-loving husband-and-wife couple. We then conceived the entire living space by taking the kitchen as a focal point, with a mix of various other activities and functions unfolding around it.

Within this single-roomed space, we also created a box-like structure with a loft bedroom for the children on top of it, and private quarters including a bedroom and bathroom inside it.

In order to minimize heat loss within this massive space, a 100mm layer of urethane foam was added to the walls, floors and ceiling, while a combined heat and power device was installed in the living room to heat water and provide floor heating.

All openings were designed by making use of existing sash windows and doors, while glass panes were all given a double-glazing treatment to improve insulation.

The façade of the building was left intact in an effort to blend in with the surrounding neighborhood, as well as due to cost considerations.

Above: ground floor plan

The result was a comfortable, luxurious home that made effective use of existing features while also avoiding excessive expense.

Above: first floor plan

Location: Yoro, Gifu
Date of Completion: May 2012
Principal Use: Private House

Above: mezzanine plan

Structure: Steel Frame
Site area: 1027.34 sq m
Total Floor Area: 131.58 sq m

Above: section

Above: section

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Airhouse Design Office appeared first on Dezeen.

They’ve been around for thousands of years, but Furoshiki are making a fresh, practical comeback thanks in part to Japan Store. Once cherished as the precious carrier of royal and holy robes, the Japanese cloth squares were also used as bathmats centuries ago but today, they can be used…

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Zig-zagging pleats embellish the facade of this wedding centre in Saitama, Japan, in our fourth recent story about the work of architect Hironaka Ogawa (+ slideshow).

Named Pleats.M, the two-storey building was planned as the first in a chain of marriage centres for a new weddings brand, so Hironaka Ogawa was asked to come up with a strong brand identity that could be reused for other locations.

“To render gorgeousness as a wedding facility, I introduced the idea of pleated walls,” explains the architect. “The pleats can fit into any shape by expanding and contracting. Therefore, the pleated wall is perfect for not only this project but also the future projects on undecided sites.”

Walls inside the building also form pleats, but the creases are inverted to create a reverse of the facade. This gives the impression that the walls are no thicker than a single sheet of metal.

Apart from a length of glazing along the facade, there are no windows to interrupt the pleats. This also helps to shut out any noise from the road.

Wedding parties enter via a double-height entrance foyer, where a processional staircase leads up to the chapel on the first floor. This small hall features an illuminated aisle, faceted benches and a decorative ceiling.

Once the ceremony is over, guests are invited down to a double height room on the ground floor for the reception celebrations.

Other spaces include a waiting room containing two long tables, where lighting fixtures are folded to match the pleated walls.

Hironaka Ogawa set up his studio in 2005 and has also completed another wedding chapel, which features columns shaped like trees. See more architecture by Hironaka Ogawa on Dezeen.

Photography is by Daici Ano.

Here’s a project description from Hironaka Ogawa:

Pleats.M

This is a project for a wedding facility located by a suburban road. The client desired to launch a fresh wedding brand and requested me to create a design that will be repeatable in their following developments.

Also, the client desired a new concept for their facility that reflected their unique site. Ordinary and traditional suburban wedding facilities would not use sites as narrow and irregularly shaped as this one.

First of all, I shut the noise from the heavy traffic on the national road by creating a totally closed façade which dramatizes the extraordinary. In order to construct a building of the maximum building-to-land ratio on the irregular-shape site as well as to render gorgeousness as a wedding facility, I introduced the idea of pleated walls. The uniquely pleated walls serve as both decorations and building structures.

In addition, the pleats make shadows that change slowly by the sun further creating various looks each season. The pleated wall has reversed pattern on its back counterpart. Therefore, even a single pleated wall shows different looks on its exterior and interior simultaneously. The interior space is introverted for the facility function. However, I wanted to link the interior to the exterior by the two important walls; one runs along the main access via the national road, and another runs along the approach from the municipal road.

By attaching the entrance hall, the mezzanine lounge, the chapel, the waiting room and restrooms to the two walls, I planned the pleated walls to be prominent from the inside as well. The pleats can fit into any shape by expanding and contracting. Therefore, the pleated wall is perfect for not only this project but also the future projects on undecided sites.

Considering these factors, I chose the brand name “Pleats” inspired by the architectural shape, and I incorporated the pleats motif on the fixtures, the furniture, and even accessories.

Pleats on clothing bring a unique richness by folding a large fabric. It is a very simple rule to fold. However, diverse folds host many functions such as structure, decorations, and sound reflectors. Thereby the pleated walls create various spaces for wedding ceremonies.

Function: wedding hall
Location: Saitama, Japan
Structure: steel frame
Site area: 1487.46 sqm
Architectural area: 1033.19 sqm
Total floor area: 1398.89 sqm

Above: site plan – click for larger image

Above: ground floor plan – click for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click for larger image

Above: sections – click for larger image

Above: west elevation – click for larger image

Above: east elevation – click for larger image

The post Pleats.M by
Hironaka Ogawa appeared first on Dezeen.

This narrow house on a high street in Tokyo by Apollo Architects & Associates features a glazed ground-floor gallery (+ slideshow).

The three-storey house has a long and slim shape that is common for city residences in Japan, which are often referred to as eel’s beds or nests.

Apollo Architects & Associates designed the building with a simple rectangular facade and added the glazed gallery in a prominent position on the left-hand side. The entrance to the house sits to the right and is recessed to create a sheltered porch.

A grid of eight windows stretches across the facade on the upper levels to bring natural light into the two main residential storeys.

On the first floor, a blue-painted partition separates a small study from a traditional Japanese room, while a bathroom is tucked away at the back.

One floor up, a single room spans the building to create a living room with a kitchen at its far end.

The staircase connecting the three floors is made from steel and features open treads that allow light to pass through. It extends up to the roof, which accommodates a small terrace.

Apollo Architects & Associates is led by Satoshi Kurosaki and also recently completed a house with three courtyards behind a concrete exterior. See more architecture by Apollo Architects & Associates.

Other Japanese houses on Dezeen recently include an extension with two tree inside it and a residence with twisted proportions generated using the Fibonacci mathematical sequence. See more houses in Japan.

Photography is by Masao Nishikawa.

Here’s some more information from Apollo Architects & Associates:

Flag (Nakano Ward, Tokyo)

The site for this residence is narrow on the side facing the shopping district and long in the other direction, just like an “eel’s bed”. The facade is composed of large openings arranged in a regular grid.

The couple – a husband who works for an advertisement company and wife who works for a furniture store – is an active DINKS (double-income, no kids) couple.

The first floor is the glazed gallery which opens toward the street. Even though the house is compact, it can generate income when also used as a shop and by including a space for people to gather, it attains a public character. It is an urban residence which can offer a lifestyle of the future.

Location: Nakano ward, Tokyo
Completion: 2013.01

Site area: 45.19 sqm
Building area: 34.59 sqm
1F floor area: 31.09 sqm
2F floor area: 34.59 sqm
3F floor area: 34.59 sqm
PH floor area: 3.95 sqm
Total floor area: 105.03 sqm

Structure: Steel
Scale: 3F
Typology: Private housing + Retail

Structures: Masaki Structures, Kneta Masaki
Facility engineers: Shimada Architects, Zenei Shimada
Construction: Ido Construction

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& Associates appeared first on Dezeen.