TETRIS TERRACE
The block including the site locates right in the south from Jiyugaoka Station. The site con- sists of two types of void following our classify; courtyard type and rooftop type.
The former is in the middle of the block and now used as a parking lot, having potential to be built something. The latter is rooftops of surrounding building which are left unused yet have various places with different level.
In addition, the site is in between two areas, commercial and residential. So it would fit to the program of accommodation.
We made unused rooftops parts of architec- ture. Then we built a volume in the courtyard type void. Depending on the charcteristics of the rooftop terraces, we deformed daily life and gave a specificities to 7 each rooms.
In this way, we formed each room as a set of a inside room and a rooftop terrace. In order to make the architecture a benchmark, we designed a rectangular volume of reignforced concrete structure with minimal facade, yet complex with different form of rooms and a staircase inside. The architecure hence looks seemingly very simple, however, consists of different characters of rooms with full of un- predictability.
Tichel
house & Atelier Bow – Wow / Atelier Bow – Wow
Liner Community
The Ebisu site for some historical reasons became the current slender shape. Our group first look into such sites in Tokyo to find the community of the slender type of site in Tokyo.
Then we find that Ebisu is dominated by young generation, however, the area is one of the highest land price in Tokyo. So there’s a contradiction that Ebisu is mainly for young generation who cannot afford to live there.
Our design goal is to make an affordable residence office complex for young generation in the specific area of Ebisu. The design makes vertical common space from ground level (gallery) to the top (roof garden), connection and organizing all rooms in every level. The common space contents kitchens, refreshing rooms, meeting rooms, and activity rooms etc. The common space goes up in a spiral way so that people can get a whole view of both the road and the river. Rooms are situated at south facing the river and courtyard enclosed by surrounding buildings, at the same time, offices are facing north and connected to the corridor
Frug House
Both the Frog House and the Gae House played important roles in shaping our design. Generally speking, these two projects can be respectively described as either a chimney with two facades or else a building with a big roof.
The main concept from the Frug House is its ambiguity, with its two facades, or faces. One on these is symmetrical and open, with large “eyes”, and the other is dug-in and shows the complex interior of the house with its various shapes and materials. Both these faces are emphasized in our perspectives. The chimney is kept because of its important position in the Frug House as well as for the design limitations and possibilities it creates. Our idea of a big roof is connected with Bow-Wow’s Gae House. Here, the roof pitch was determined by local regulations in this mostly residential area. The large-size front window makes the house more difficult to “perceive”, and this idea can be traced in both the Frug House and the Gae House.
The foursquare plan derives from the traditional Japanese “ta” character for the shape of a rice field; it consists of a simple division of the square-shaped plan into four equal quadrants. Both staircase and chimney are set in the same quadrant, forcing the stairs to dance round the chimney on the way up or down.
In our pespectives we reveal the ambiguity of our design. The symmetrical facade with its large window and hat-like roof that imitates a typical house shape dominates the first one. The second shows the playful asymmetrical backside.
Bath
The research follows the transformation of the Japanese bath over the last 150 years from a set of portable objects – each designed for its respective distinct purpose yet not bound to a particular space – to a bathroom integrating the different elements into a whole unit, including the surfaces of the ceiling, the walls and the floors, as well as the hidden installations for water supply, water heating, sewage disposal, driers, lighting, and so on.
Originating as a service reserved to a privileged few – where the water was brought from the well by a servant, while another servant was responsible for heating it, preparing the bath and maintaining the right temperature – more so than with other devices and spaces in Japan, the history of the private bath is closely linked to social emancipation. In the post-war years the equipment of apartments with baths, facilitated by compact and safe gas-water-heaters, became a symbol of improvements in quality of life under the welfare state, while in more recent years the fully-equipped bath has more and more become a highly technological space of contemporary comfort and body-care, its surfaces imitating wood and tiles and thus, via associations, continuing to establish relationship to its origins, albeit an indefinite one.