Hasta La Ideas

Japanese architects atelierA5 have completed this four-storey house in Tokyo enclosed by a perforated metal screen.

The SN. House is located on a narrow side street in a dense residential area of the city.

The first two storeys are screened by perforated metal sheets, which form the entrance hall and service corridor on the ground floor.

The roof of the service corridor creates a terrace for the first floor living space.

The  top two floors are set back to adhere to local regulations and create terraces for each level.

More Japanese houses on Dezeen »

Photographs are by Ken’ichi Suzuki Photography Studio.

The following is from the architect:

SN. House by atelierA5

SN. House is located in a dense residential area in Tokyo. The building site is 80 m2 big facing to a narrow side street. To use a small site like this in an effective way it was important to consider the way of placing a building volume in the site. If the distance between the outside wall and the site boundary is narrow it produces an unusable gap. If the distance is wide enough the outside space can be useful but it reduces the inside space.

Our focus for the design was to create an optimal living condition and maximal usable areas within a small site by redefining the relation between the outside walls and the site boundary.

In order to keep the privacy for the ground floor and the 1st floor we encased the site with a two storey high screen on the site border instead of having a big distance to the neighbors and lose too much area.

This screen is made of punched metal sheets creating a semi-interior space by keeping a little distance to the actual building. The semi-interior space on the ground floor is used as an entrance hall and a service corridor covered with a steel-grating roof. The roof is the terrace of the 1st floor, which extends the space of the living room. The combination of the screen with the semi-interior space brings not only privacy but also filtered sunlight, wind and views. The outside walls of the 2nd and penthouse were set back, so that it created nice terraces for each floor and solved strict setback regulations at the same time.

Credits
Architect: Sadahiro Shimizu, Masatoshi Matsuzaki, Yuko Shimizu /atelier A5

Structural planning: Hayata Matou

Location: Minamikarasuyama Setagaya-ku Tokyo Japan

Completion year: 2010

Total area

• site area; 80.30sqm
• building area; 47.99sqm
• total floor area; 126.61sqm

Structure: Wood Structure

See also:

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Inside Out by Takeshi Hosaka Architects	House I by Yoshichika Takagi	House in Ise by Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates

Rain falls inside parts of this house in Tokyo by Japanse studio Takeshi Hosaka Architects.

Called Inside Out, the home for a couple and two cats has an enclosed core of bedrooms and living rooms, surrounded by an outer shell with a quadrilateral plan.

Apertures in the outside allow rain, wind and light into the space between the two structures.

The inner building can be opened up further by sliding back glass panels.

More Japanese houses on Dezeen »

The details that follow are from the architects:

INSIDE OUT

This is a project of a house for a married couple and two cats, located in Tokyo.

The project had started based on the idea that humans and cats live in a same house, rather than cats living in a house designed for humans — and finally this idea brought out a concept: “a house inside which you feel being outside.”

The shape of the building was decided as an irregular quadrangle in accordance with the irregularly-shaped quadrangular site. The roof and wall sides of the volume have carefully designed openings, through which light, wind or rain could enter into the building.

Plants are planted in the ground under the roof opening which allows rain to enter in. The boxes for bedroom and for bathroom are put in the outer volume; and a living room is located above the bedroom box and a deck above the bathroom box.

Inside the volume, there is a space in which you would feel yourself being outside: Light, wind or rain could enter in, so that your way of living depends on the weather; but in this house, you would always positively seek to find another images of life.

Areas on the floor on which rain falls vary according to the wind direction, so you would seek to find the area where you don’t get wet. As you live longer, you would find out, from your experiences, various things about the relation between the extent to which rain enters in on the one hand, and the location of objects, furniture and yourself on the other. And, there is no air-conditioner in this house.

During intermediate seasons or summer, both humans and cats live in natural draft, or, in the other words, they live in the air environment which is almost same as the outside. On windy or chilly days, you could stay in the indoor boxes or the living room with glass sliding doors closed.

Figures and other many items which had been collected are located not only indoors, but many of which are also put on the outdoor shelves to the extent that it is possible. Cats walk on the thin line on which rain doesn’t fall and find places in the sun to take a nap.

The couple stay in the living room upstairs with glass doors open, sometimes even on rainy days; they often live a life in which they feel themselves being outside even while being inside.

People living in the modern era attempt in the modern way to reduce energy consumption and to coexist with nature — this is also a positive attempt to find what ways of life are possible beyond energy problems and this, in turn, beyond way of life, leading to the important themes about human mental activities.

The couple and cats who had lived in an apartment are now pioneering the new images of life every day in the weather-dependent house inside which they feel being outside.

INSIDE OUT
Architect: Takeshi Hosaka
Structural Engineers: Hirofumi Ohno

Photographer: Koji Fujii / Nacasa&Pertners Inc.
Client: Masayoshi & Yoko Matumoto

Name of the project: INSIDE OUT
Exact definition of the building: a couple and two cats
Location of the project: Kastushika-ku , Tokyo , Japan

Construction: wooden-structure
Site: 149.59 m2
Building area: 59.23 m2
Floor area ratio: 91.15 m2
Building height: 5859 mm
No. of floors: 2
Building function: House
Planning data
Design: August 2009 – April 2010
Planning start (M/Y): August / 2009
Beginning of construction: May / 2010
Completion: September / 2010

See also:

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House I by Yoshichika Takagi	Duplex House in Tokito by Hidehiro Fukuda Architects	House in Hieidaira by Tato Architects

Japanese interior designer Yukio Kimura has created this combined cafe, gallery and second-hand book shop in Osaka, Japan.

Called Sorayumebako, the interior is lined with a wooden grid supporting shelves for the books and frames for the artwork.

The whole space is painted in orange, including walls, ceiling, floor and all the furniture.

Photographs are by Kiyotoshi Takashima.

Here is more information from the designer:

Sorayumebako

It is located in the area where locals live in, far away from the busy commercial centre. I designed the shop with the concept of “not to blend in the surrounding”, following my client’s request to reflect the meaning of “Sorayumebako” to the actual design.

“Sorayume” is a Japanese word meaning “a fabricated dream” to tell people as if you actually dreamed it. Having this concept in mind, I tried to create space where visitors feel as if they stepped into another world, a dream.

The key colour of orange interprets the time between day and night, summer and winter, and yin and yang. It reveals that this is a place for visitors to change their mind from yang “daily life” to yin “private life”. I only used one colour in order to enhance visitor’s awareness through the shop from within and without.

For letting visitors associate “bako” (the variant form of “hako”) meaning “a box” in English, I lined a series of portal frames from the entrance to the shop. Using this unique structure, I had tables, bookshelves, exhibition panels and projector panels built-in, in order to make use of space for many different occasions.

Design: kraf•te, Yukio Kimura
Sign Graphics: kraf•te, Yukiko Yamamoto
Collaboration / Lighting: Fukunishi Electric Corporation, Yoshino Higashi
Constructi+on: Up Life

See also:

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Shelf-Pod by Kazuya Morita Architecture Studio	Near House by Mount Fuji Architects Studio	Tree House by Mount Fuji Architects Studio

London studios Anomaly and Unit9 are collating patterns donated by artists, which users can print out with instructions to make origami cranes in exchange for a donation to disaster relief in Japan.

Top: Zeitguised
Above: Matt Lyon

Called One Thousand Cranes for Japan, the project draws on Japanese legend that a person who folds 1000 origami cranes will be granted a wish.

Above: Laura Quick

Artists involved so far include Zeitguised, Tokyo Plastic and Matt Lyon, with new artists added each day.

Above: Hennie Haworth

Join in here:

www.onethousandcranesforjapan.com
www.facebook.com/onethousandcranesforjapan

Above: Actop

More about Japan »

Above: Todd Selby

The information that follows is from the designers:

As the aftermath of the tsunami continues to cause serious disruption throughout northern Japan, we need to bring aid and support to the area as quickly as possible. Although financial donations will be greatly appreciated, it is also important that the people of Japan to know that we are contributing in a way that transcends monetary worth.

Above: Tokyo Plastic

An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish. Today, the Japanese still respect this custom and use it to help loved ones recover from illness or injury.

Above: Tom Uglow

One Thousand Cranes for Japan takes this tradition and expands it across the globe in a unified display of goodwill. Anomaly London has together with Unit9 created a project where in exchange for a donation you can print a specially designed pattern to fold into an origami crane in support of Japan.

Many famous artists have donated patterns for the initiative. We launch with designs from animators Zeitguised, photographer Todd Selby, artist Paul Slater, creative collective Actop, illustrators Brian Grimwood, Hennie Haworth, Laura Quick, Matt Lyon and directors Tokyo Plastic.

We will add designs as they come in day by day: we are expecting submissions from Diane von Furstenberg, Brian Grimwood, Andy Gilmore, James Joyce, Mr Bingo and Jody Barton.

A donation to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund allows you to download and print off one of these illustrations, complete with instructions on how to make your own origami crane.

We are hoping many thousands of people will make a crane and in doing so focus their wishes of hope and recovery for those in the grip of this tragedy.

See also:

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Help Japan Poster by Wieden + Kennedy	“Please help Japan” – Tokujin Yoshioka	Heart for Japan by Delphine Perrot

Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka has sent this letter and video asking for donations to the Red Cross for disaster relief following the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.

Can’t see the movie? Click here

Here’s the letter in full:

Dear friends,

As you may already have known, Japan was hit by the largest earthquake ever recorded on Friday, March 11th.

The huge quake and devastating tsunami has left the overwhelming damage to the country and we are still facing this terrifying conditions.

As I have received the message from all over the world, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere appreciation for your warmest concerns.

This is the time for us to think what we can really do. I have thought what I could do now, at this moment.

I believe that there would be more than just watching the situation of this disaster on television to help the lives of people there. I know I am not in place to ask such thing, yet one of the thing that we can do for the people in the afflicted area is to donate for their relief and recovery.

There are babies in need of milk, people who has lost their families, and houses.

Here are links to the donation for the relief and recovery of the Japanese earthquake and Pacific tsunami afflicted region:

Japan Red Cross Society »
American Red Cross »

We truly appreciate your support, even the very small support from your pocket, for the relief and recovery of my country.

Deepest regards,
Tokujin Yoshioka

See also: Help Japan Poster by Wieden + Kennedy