Hasta La Ideas

News: UK firm Zaha Hadid Architects has been selected to design the new national stadium for Japan.

The new 80,000-seat stadium will replace the existing Kasumigaoka National Stadium in Tokyo and could become the main sporting venue for the 2020 Olympic Games if Japan is successful in its bid to host the event.

The arena is also earmarked to host the 2019 Rugby World Cup and will be offered to FIFA as a possible venue for future World Cup football matches.

Zaha Hadid Architects has seen off ten other finalists to win the competition, which was organised by the Japan Sport Council.

The new building is scheduled for completion in 2018.

Also this week, the Zaha Hadid-designed Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum opened to the public at Michigan State University.

See more stories about Zaha Hadid Architects, including the recently completed Galaxy Soho, a 330,000-square-metre retail, office and entertainment complex in Beijing.

The post Zaha Hadid to design
Japan National Stadium appeared first on Dezeen.

Courtyards punch through the walls and roof of this bungalow that Japanese studio Kazuya Saito Architects designed for an elderly couple in Sendai (+ slideshow).

Architect Kazuya Saito designed the single-storey building with a square-shaped plan and created the terraces within recesses on three different elevations.

A double-height dining room is positioned at the centre of the house and the terraces stretch back to meet it on three sides, while a bathroom occupies the same space on the fourth side.

There are no corridors, so rooms just lead into one another. ”I designed the house to be used for a variety of purposes, so it has various routes plus inside and outside spaces,” Saito told Dezeen.

Windows are positioned within the recesses and on the sloping roof, rather than on the galvanised steel exterior walls. “I designed the exterior to look like a fortress or spaceship, but with a bright space inside,” said Saito.

Surfaces inside the house are finished with wood panels and grey tiles, or are simply painted white.

This is the fifth house we’ve featured from Japan in the last week, following one with sheds on its roof and one inspired by animals’ nests.

See more Japanese houses » 

Photography is by Yasuhiro Takagi.

Here’s some more information from Kazuya Saito:

House Yagiyama

This one-storey house is for an old couple will spend their rest of life after retirements.

The house is located in Yagiyama hilly district which lies south of a Hirosegawa river terrace. It is a historical residential area developing from the beginning of showa era 1960 by scraping off bedrock. The site is surrounded by houses, apartment, and a nearby house which client’s son family is living, so the clients requested living in privacy, but a sunny and breezy house while considering connection with the nearby house.

To take appropriate distances from the surroundings, first I decided to put volume at the middle of the site. Instead of no window at outer walls, I took out four spaces as terraces from the volume: the entrance, a side door connecting to main house, a bright wash room, and a garden space softly divides living room and bedroom.

Then setting high or small windows in those spaces allows daylight in with good ventilation while keeping privacy. As for the roof, I cut off the slope at the four corner of central volume to adjust to surrounding houses; besides, there is a skylight to release hot air and prompt natural ventilation.

Above: site plan – click above for larger image

The flat shape formed by equivalently arranged rooms including exterior terraces gives an impression that the space is unending. On the other hands, the space expression is ever changing since each room has various specifications; exterior to interior; woody color to inorganic white color; and flat ceiling to inclined ceiling. It is like African music which has a unique sound by playing various rhythm at the same time, that is to say, Yagiyama house is created as architecture by combining individual rhythm of each space.

Above: floor plan – click above for larger image

This kind of architecture is producing various time and space from moment to moment, so every day each client can find the place where each of them feels comfortable; such as the moment their grandchildren happily running around, family dinner with feeling a breeze, reading under the sunshine, or bath time under the star-filled sky. I hope this architecture achieved “fluctuation” of space which allows creative and fascinating life.

Above: section – click above for larger image

Architect: Kazuya Saito Architects
Location: Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
Structural Design: Atsuhiro Nakahata + Yasushi Moribe
Structural System: Wooden
Storeys: 1 Storey
Maximum Height: 5,330 mm
Site Area: 468.96 sqm
Building Area: 137.47 sqm
Total Foor Area: 137.47 sqm
Project Year: 2011-2012

The post House Yagiyama by
Kazuya Saito Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Our second story this week about Japanese architects no.555 features a low-budget house inspired by animals’ nests beside a rice field in Matsumoto (+ slideshow).

Architect Takuya Tsuchida of no.555 explains how he wanted to “capture the feeling of the surrounding natural environment” by designing a house that copies some of the characteristics of a bird or animal’s home.

In keeping with this, the small tunnel-like house is slightly sunken into the ground with excavated soil built up around one side for insulation, similar to a rabbit’s warren.

“By taking inspiration from nature and following a strict building logic, I was able to recreate elements of nature in an abstract manner,” said Tsuchida.

Inside the house, walls are lined with boards of cement-bonded wood chip that alludes to the compacted twigs of a bird’s nest.

There are no floor-to-ceiling interior walls, as the architect wanted to let residents create their own spaces using furniture and screens.

Our first story this week about no.555 featured a house with a multi-tonal concrete facade.

See more Japanese houses »

Photography is by Koichi Torimura.

Here’s a project description from the architect:

The site of the house is surrounded by rice paddies, with mountains in the distance. The goal of the project was to build a small house for a husband and wife within a tight budget of $180,000.

My initial instinct was to build a structure that captured the feeling of the surrounding natural environment. Architecture being an artificial construct made this a challenge. Rather than simply imitating forms found in nature I tried to create an abstract representation that still imparts a feeling of nature.

In the natural world, there is expression that is algorithmic and beautiful. For example, the way the birds weave nests out of leaves and twigs, or the holes and patterns of displaced earth created by animals burrowing into the ground.

By abstracting these ideas, it is possible to use them as a starting point for creating architectural models. In doing so, I believe it is possible to create an architecture that is both rational and organic.

Although the budget for the project was low, we decided to use reinforced concrete for three reasons:

1) Reasons the groundwater level is high, because we can ensure reliably waterproof.
2) By studying the details, there was a possibility of finding a reasonable way to eliminate the secondary member.
3) We knew because it can be used as insulation materials and finishing materials.

By it, we were able to reduce the cost of materials and artificial. Bysimplifying the building process we were able to complete construction in 3 months. The soil that has been discharged by it was used as embankment around the building. It is to reduce the cost of disposal of the soil. In addition, the building insulation has been improved by surround soil.

Despite the difference between the exterior and interior materials, the experience inside the home distinctly nest-like. Also, the shape of the house brings to mind an animal nest with the displaced earth piled around the exterior of the structure.

The house was constructed without discrete rooms, inviting its occupants to define interior spaces and level of privacy through the placement of furniture. Once furnished, the building is complete.

MYZ _ “NEST”, single family house,
Location: Matsumoto-city, Nagano, Japan
Architect: no.555 _ Takuya Tsuchida
Structural frame works: Megumi Akimoto
Design period: 2009.05 – 2011.03
Construction period: 2011.05 – 2011.08
Site area: 335.96 sq m
Floor Area: 97.39 sq m

Above: site plan – click above for larger image

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: cross-section – click above for larger image

Above: long section – click above for larger image

Above: side elevation – click above for larger image

The post MYZ Nest
by no.555 appeared first on Dezeen.

Black-stained cedar clads this weekend house at the beach in Chiba, Japan, by Tokyo studio BAKOKO (+ slideshow).

Architects Kayoko Ohtsuki and Alastair Townsend of BAKOKO designed the house for a Tokyo-based couple that wanted a second home by the sea. “He envisioned a rustic retreat where he can throw parties on deck and she wanted a high-spec kitchen, a luxurious bath with a view and her own hobby room for sewing projects,” explained Townsend. “We developed a compact design to accommodate their varied interests with the flexibility to informally sleep five or six guests.”

The entrance to the house is tucked inside a traditional Japanese genkan; a porch where residents can take off their shoes.

Most of the ground floor is taken up by a double-height living and dining room, which opens out to the sheltered deck that stretches across the facade. “To maximize solar exposure, the glazed facade is angled south, shaded by a projecting eave during hot summer months,” said Townsend.

Stairs lead up from the living room to a spruce-clad mezzanine that is used as both a guestroom and a home office.

From here, a ladder leads up through a pivoting skylight so that residents can climb up onto the roof and survey their surroundings.

The bathroom is at the corner of the ground floor, beside a window that faces out onto a small walled garden.

The house also features an outdoor shower, as one of the residents is a keen surfer.

Townsend told Dezeen how the project was “almost aborted after the March 2011 earthquake,” as the disaster forced the clients to rethink what the house might have to withstand. He explained how the house was designed with earthquake and typhoon-proof foundations and in the end the clients chose to proceed with the construction.

Other Japanese weekend houses we’ve featured include a woodland summerhouse and a house of two blocks beside Tokyo Bay.

See more stories about holiday homes or see all our stories about Japanese houses.

Here’s some extra information from BAKOKO:

Onjuku Surf Shack
2012 Onjuku, Japan

Onjuku is a popular seaside resort and fishing town on Chiba’s Pacific coast, about an hour and a half by train from Tokyo. The beach house is sited behind a bluff, 300 meters from Onjuku’s famous white sand beach. Built for an international couple (the husband is a lifelong surfer who live and work in Tokyo), this weekend getaway may become a permanent residence once they reach retirement.

The home’s concealed entrance is served by a Japanese genkan, a porch separating the home proper from a built-in shed for stashing surfboards and bicycles. This tunnel-like outer porch connects the gated rear entryway and the wooden deck which incorporates a built-in seat and planter. Timber shutters slide across the entire southern eave, securely locking-down the home to protect it from the seasonal typhoons.

From the road, the home maintains an intentionally low profile. Its austere stained tongue and groove cladding is sourced from native Japanese cedar.

Returning from the beach, a private outdoor shower leads directly into the tiled bathroom. An intimate garden provides a tranquil backdrop to the sunken bathtub.

The home’s dark exterior skin contrasts with its light and airy interior. The double-height living space is occupied by a spruce-clad box that supports a loft space above and contains the master bedroom, WC, and bathroom below. Careful detailing has incorporated the staircase and doors that close flush to conceal these private rooms.

Sitting at the built-in desk upstairs, one can gaze out the sea for inspiration. The shallow pitched roof is accessible via a ladder extending into a large pivoting skylight.

Since the home is intended for casual entertaining, the loft spaces and a timber-lined lower study double as occasional guest rooms.

The home is predicated on passive design principles. Generous south-oriented glazing is shaded by the eaves in summer. Cross ventilation captures cool sea breezes. Slotted perforations milled into the wooden balustrade promote air circulation and cleanly conceal mechanical air conditioning units. In winter, the wood-burning stove provides renewable heat energy.

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

The post Onjuku Surf Shack
by BAKOKO appeared first on Dezeen.

Voici la nouvelle exposition « Winter Light » au parc d’attractions Nagashima Resort situé au Japon, jusqu’au 31 mars 2013. Une installation incroyable composée de millions de lumières LED dans le jardin botanique pour toute la saison hivernale. A découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.