INTESTANT RAMP

The vertical movement of elevators and the increase of flat roads that are easy to walk due to paving have brought convenience to people’s urban life. However, as roads were paved and the city became safer, people lost the behavior of paying attention to their surroundings and checking their footing.

In addition, signs at train stations and commercial fa- cilities, as well as maps on smart phones, do not make people think about where they are going; they simply follow the directions on the signs in front of them. In cities, people follow the directions of the signs and smartphone information presented to them, without checking their surroundings or even thinking about where they are.

In a world where convenience has become the norm, we designed the ramp to break that norm and awaken the physicality that people have almost forgotten. Let’s take the human act of walking back to the level of prim- itive times.

We considered the ideas of two theorists, Shusaku Arakawa and Claude Parent. Shusaku Arakawa, a con- temporary artist, said that when one is out of balance, one reverts to an infant and is freed from the world of common sense. This is what Claude Parent says in his book “Visionary Architect”. He said, “by makg movement conscious, a whole new sensory world emerges. In response to these words, we thought that by walking on a slope, we become more aware of the gravity that is placed on our bodies. Also, it would be an opportunity for people to regain their physicality, which they had forgotten until now.

This intervention consists of two vertical circulation on the façade; the first a barefoot ramp; the second, a stairway to be walked with shoes. The barefoot ramp connects the 3FL Napping-Beach and the 8th floor Tat- ami-Beach with a single path, and the steep 15 percent slope and unevenness of the floor that can be felt with bare feet remind us of the behavior of walking. By con- sidering the dead space at the intersection of the ramp and the shoes as a niche, we have created a space where people can stay in the linear flow line.

The other staircase, where people walk with their shoes, becomes a place that connects the behavior of each floor. For example, a semi-outdoor space on the 5th floor is connected to the rooftop festival, and signs made on the 4th floor are installed on each floor.

Depending on the direction of movement, the direction of gravity changes. This causes a change in the feeling and load (ascent, support, fatigue or descent, accelera- tion, elation) that we feel. Through experiences that put a strain on the body, such as being “dragged,” the senses of elation and resistance are refined. The slant of the floor, or slope, makes you feel gravity strongly even when you are standing still. You will be aware of a load that you cannot experience on a flat surface.

Because people are frequently isolated in their habita- tion, they eliminate the possibility of interaction. By walking on a slope, we are strongly aware of the gravity that is placed on our bodies. I think this will be an op- portunity for people to regain their physicality, which they have forgotten until now.

Information that works directly on the body.

Yoyogi / Start Up Station

Standing with its platform parallel to the road, Yoyogi station is a hidden building with few parts exposed to the city. At the west exit, the building facade that faces the intersection is in line with other buildings. Passing through this exit, the stairs divide to cross the Central line, Sobu line and the Yamanote line, and reach the small east entrance. The station has unique characteristics such as the staircase rising towards the platform, or the west exit orientation that is adjusted to the city blocks. Distinctive steps were taken to coordinate the various cir- cumstances in the station building.

Yoyogi flourished due to young people as various academic facilities of preparatory and animation schools were established in this area. However, as Japan is facing a declining birth- rate, the state of the city is starting to change. In the future, the ticket gates may change into gateless or touchless which then create a wider space inside the station. In these circumstan- ces, what would the station look like if the station planned to provide an incubation office for creative individuals who dreamt of entrepreneurship and startups?

An atrium was created by removing the wall on the first floor of the West exit station building and the floor of the second-floor courtyard. The third floor was raised and the boundary with the platform was removed. This way, the existing platform, 2nd and 3rd floor became steps that shifted half a floor. As these various steps of courtyards, floors, and platform with new stairs connect, variations of visual permeability within the station building are created. Resi- dents will work mainly in the spaces on the 2nd and 3rd floors. With this new station, they will be able to freely publicize themselves to the station users and be able to interact with each other.

ETHNIC FOOD KITHEN

PROLOGUE

In Ikebukuro, a city with many foreign workers, there are many ethnic restaurants. In ethnic restaurants, peo- ple recall a certain “place” through food. It can be said that ethnic cuisine has an aspect of transmitting “place” that goes beyond food. Therefore, I propose an ethnic kitchen to explore food as a commons.

DECONSTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF ETHNIC CUISINE

There are various types of ethnic cuisines. In recent years, with the development of social networking sites, “authenticity” is becoming more and more important in ethnic cuisine. However, the actual cuisine is defined by the ingredients and the cooking method, and there is a limit to the cooking method. Therefore, when we deconstructed the cooking process, we found that the heating process is the most important one. Therefore,

We decided to classify the world’s cuisines not by coun- try or region, but by heating method. Just as fire has created gatherings of people since ancient times, we hope that fire will create new communities of people in this project. In addition, we believe that the food pre- pared there will eventually be influenced by the cuisines of other countries and become international cuisine. Regarding the recent boom in international cuisine, ac- cording to (1), it can be said that it is a trend of ideo- logical support to break away from the illusory recogni- tion of nationalities. However, statelessness, which can be reached only at the end of the transmission of the identity of all people as an ethnic group, is very differ- ent from a society in which the identity of nationality is suppressed, even if it is the same in the sense that it is not bound to a single nationality, and it would be an attractive society.

CONSTRUCTING THE KITCHEN AS A SINGLE WORLD

Reconstructing the world’s cuisine in terms of process- es rather than actual geographical criteria is equivalent to creating a semantic world or city. In this project, the only thing that was decided was that one unit would be created for each heating place, but I could not find any basis for the decision beyond that. Therefore, the archi- pelago model was used in this project as the basis for the architectural decision, because the existing pillar grid was a factor, precisely because it was a renovation of a department store, and the places where people stay avoided the area around the pillars, and the space sur- rounded by pillars became one unit. However, more than such a rationale, the image of the world map held by ethnic cuisine led to the model of Archipelago.

Arata Isozaki is one of the architects who confronted the problem of the absence of a determinant basis for design. He began using the term “tentative form” after a conversation with Ignazi Sola-Morales in 1990, hav- ing developed it from his methodological theory in the 1970s. It is very interesting to note that he also used the

archipelago model in his Tentative Form, in which a one-time form was chosen depending on the situation at hand. In this project, the archipelagoes are connected by an infrastructure of water and fire (smoke), so it can be said that the method of generation is just like the city itself. Not only in this project, but also in architectur- al design, the criterion of judgment is always tentative, and therefore, the citation of the city as a tentative im- age in architectural design has been done since modern times. Therefore, the citation of the city as a tense im- age in architectural design has been done since modern times. As a sign of this, we can see many urban theories by architects as concept making.

ETHNIC FOOD KITCHEN

Returning to the description of the project, the place created by the counter and ducts is repeated, changing its form for each type of heating. At this point, there is a danger of uniformity in design and experience. In such a situation, Aureli describes the concept of enclave, re- ferring to the non-stop city. enclave is a means to break away from the uniformity of the space, and it also shares the same concept of landmarking. In this proj- ect, the decision was made to place the fire place on the periphery, with the exhaust ducts outside, and the more public units in the center. Here, by arranging the kitch- en as an enclave in addition to the tables, redundancy is ensured even within the grid arrangement. Through ethnic cuisine, the exploration of the rationale for de- sign in architecture is considered to be the outcome of this project.

DESIGN PURPOSE

Ethnic cuisines from around the world were catego- rized by heating method, and each cooking area was ar- ranged and designed. In addition, since the energy used for heating determines whether or not it can be reused, the color of the piping was changed for each type of en- ergy to create a space where the variations of the world’s cuisine can be visually recognized.

Aoyama Hills

The assignment is to design a “palazzo” for Tokyo in Aoyama. The site is located between the Aoyama Kitacho Danchi (low-density social housing area) and the Aoyama Dori, which provides a typical urban situation in Tokyo, with high-rises standing along the main commercial street forming a “wall”, protecting the low-rise housing area behind.
The concept of the project is to continue the urban fabric of “wall” and maintain the contrast of the two sides of the site by designing a palazzo with two very different sides, reacting respectively to the different urban situations. The different functions and spaces are organised around a central void. Facing the Aoyama Dori are mainly offices and other public functions, while facing the Danchi area are mainly apartments with a private terrace for each. The apartments take the form of terrace housing in order to adjust to the height difference between the two sides of the site, allowing more light into the spaces at the same time. A structure system of columns and slabs is chosen so that there is more flexibility in accommodating spaces with different dimensions for various functions.