How can we use the Wike House project by Robert Venturi, to think of a building that incorporates a specific program fitting a designated site in a totally opposed context – Tokyo? The intention of this idea seems, for many to be arbitrary. We do not think so. The suburban context in which most of Robert Venturi’s are located and the very visual play with these contextual elements can also be found in the undesigned environment of contemporary Tokyo. We extracted three conditions from the Wike House, each of which interested us: two houses in one – guesthouse vs. owner; secret garden, since what is behind this house is unknown and front vs. back
Starting from here the main question was: How does Venturi’s design deal with these conditions and how can we apply them in our version. The volume of our design forms an L-shape in order to create a peripheral block-like courtyard (or secret garden). The two programmatic volumes are separated on the entrance level to enable a sneak peek into the garden from the street. On the upper floors, the two parts (actually two distinct houses) are connected, creating a bridge like appearance in the volume. As in the Wike House, the appearance and setup of our two main facades are quite different. Our proposal suggests an ordinary (for Tokyo) street facade and an open court facade. The relation front vs. back is, as in Venturi’s design, not merely an abstract idea, but an actual structural fact. The construction of the outer skin in concrete with recessed windows contrasts with the lighter internal glass façade. In this manner our intention is to experiment with the same methods of spatial articulation and outside communication we have examined in the work of Robert Venturi
RE-CLOTHING CENTER
The fashion industry affects the environment at every stage, for example, the procurement of raw materials to the production, transportation, and disposal of fab- rics and garments. Garments are made from a mixture of materials, and are produced in a number of factories and companies overseas. As a result, it is difficult to grasp the actual status and full extent of environmental impact. While the number of garments supplied in Ja- pan is increasing, the price per garment is getting low- er every year, and the market size is decreasing. Mass production and mass consumption are expanding, and the life cycle of clothing is becoming shorter. The trend toward mass disposal is accelerating. This is one of the reasons why the fashion industry has such a large im- pact on the environment. In fact, the average annu- al clothing consumption per person today is about 18 pieces of clothing purchased, 12 pieces of clothing giv- en away, and 25 pieces of clothing not worn. This means that there are a lot of clothes that are produced and pur- chased, but not worn and thrown away.
Ikebukuro is a place where department stores such as Seibu and other shopping facilities such as Sunshine City are concentrated. A wide range of clothes are sold there, from luxury brands to fast fashion, and many people come to Ikebukuro to buy clothes. Many people visit Ikebukuro to buy clothes. In such places, fashions go out of style quickly, and you can see big red letters saying “Sale” at the entrance of stores everywhere. These signs entice consumers to buy. But even then, the unsold items are not recycled, but discarded.
Planned obsolescence is one of the ways to stimulate consumers to buy and consume. It is a method to make consumers buy new products by designing them in ad- vance so that their quality will intentionally deteriorate during use. In addition, short warranty periods and high repair costs also encourage consumers to buy. The system of mass production and the strategies of these companies continue to incentivize consumers to buy. It has become normal for consumers to live in a cycle of buying new things and then throwing them away. They have formed an easy way of thinking that if they find a slight defect, it is time to replace it.
Modern people today prefer to buy new products that are free of defects. But Naples refuses to do that. For ex- ample, when a car breaks down, it is repaired using a wooden stick found in the street. That repair is tempo- rary, so they will repeat repairs and breakdowns. In oth- er words, they believe that objects are made up of a cy- cle of breakdown and repair. It is through the repair of broken objects that we can understand the mechanisms of objects. Modern people have forgotten this fact.
All objects fall apart and break down as we use them. As we repeatedly repair and rebuild them, we gradual- ly become attached to them. Attachment is the act of using something as long as it does not lose its function due to damage or breakage. In this way, the damaged part of a piece of metalwork is reevaluated as a value, and it is transformed into an attachment. We believe that clothes can be treated in the same way. Observe the flaws in the clothes and give them the appropriate treatment. This may be a time-consuming process, but it may allow us to continue using the clothes for a long time with affection.
PHILOSOPHY OF DECOMPOSITION (2019)
Fujiwara Tatsushi
The world we live in is filled with abundance between new products and waste, production and products, life and death for example grbage that transforms into toys, robots that return to the earth, whales that are buried, invisible microorganisms and so on. This book exam- ines the possibilities of “disassembly,” which is now talked about even more negatively, in various fields such as pedagogy, robotics, scrap pickup, ecology, and the world of repair.
Nippori / Station as Threshold
Nippori Station is where the Narita line transfers to the Yamanote line. It is the first station where foreign tourists arrive, a number that has increased recently. Many foreigners move to the transfer trains while dragging their suitcases. Yanaka Ginza is located to the west side of the station. It is a popular sightseeing spot where old-fashioned townscapes are surprisingly well-preserved as they escaped war damage and the large scale development in the city center. Nippori station holds 14 train tracks. It consisted of 2 bridge outsite of ticket gate that connects west-east side of the station, and 3 bridges that connects several platform inside the ticket gates. The bridge that connects the east and west side of the city located in the north is a famous spot called the “Train Museum”, crowded with people who come to watch many kinds of trains pass on the track. In the future, where the ticket gate will be touchless and gateless, there will be nothing to separate these two bridges from each other. Exploring the use of local potential for the tourism in future, what would bridge of Nippori station will look like? The two types of bridges are connected so that people can come and go in between and a luggage service is set up on the Keisei line side. This will create an opportunity for the foreign tourists to use their spare time enjoyably while waiting for flights at Narita airport, or for the of hotel check-in, by being able to walk in Yanaka Ginza. A middle floor between the platform and the bridge is installed to develop a train museum. For the local people this intervention will become the base of spreading the culture of Yanaka Ginza to foreign countries. In the flow of local people and foreign visitors passing by each other, the fusion space of two kinds of bridges will be the meeting point where cultures form distant foreign countries meet each other. This is symbolized by the roof structure that alternately straddles the two bridges.
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.
Elderly Care / Age is No Hinderance
In Jiyugaoka, a residential area is located at the top of the hill, and an elderly care facility and a school are located next to each other at the bottom. However, there is no interaction between these two facilities, and the elderly care facility is closed. Therefore, in order to allow children to enter the facility, a section of the building was manipulated and three plazas were created in plan. In this way, interaction between the elderly, school children, and local residents is created, and the elderly, who used to only receive care, are now actively involved.