We drew two perspectives. One of these reveals the surroundings: just as the original beach location of the Lieb House brought home the project’s tenuous position on the sand, our perspective attempts to convey our project’s relationship to the urban environment. This strategy allows the viewer to understand the proportions of the urban fabric. Our other perspective focuses on the house, and reveals the deep opening into its facade. This design decision architecturally juxtaposes the neighboring house’s garage entrance, and initiates a conversation between our proposal and the rhythms of the site. Furthermore, these perspectives incorporate the new order imposed by our site on the Lieb House, and how we interpreted this architecturally.
The Lieb House features a stair that cut through it, linking the beach directly with the living space above. Bedrooms and bathrooms cluster around a central hall on the first floor. The architect points to this contrast between the two levels by painting the facade in two colors. Even so, the paint line doesn’t line up with the floor plate, but just bifurcates the facade. In our proposal we drew from these ideas and decide to incorporate a similar open space above with an urban garden terrace, then rearrange the bottom floor to allow for parking and small garden. This creates a link with the neighbors to form a shared semi-private outdoor space.
Performing Arts / Park-Yard
The preparation process of the drama is usually hidden inside a closed small theater, which is only opened during performances. In the Covid-19 situation, a very small amount of performance makes the actor’s life difficult to sustain.
Taking this as an opportunity, we hope to release parts of the functions of the preparation process into the park and the open ground floor space as a workshop, with the intention of opening and displaying the process of drama preparation and sharing skills in cooperation with surrounding residents.
WATERSIDE ARCHIVE
Until now, the spatial imagination has been defined by the dualism of objective and subjective. Through his critique of the double illusion, Lefebvre appealed to the need to remove the powerful constraints of the logic of dualiism, and proposed trinomialization as a critical othering. The specific methods are as follows.
1 A completely different way of thinking about space, which has been obscured by the exclusive fixation of illusory materialistic and idealistic interpretations.
2 To define the scope of the infinitely expandable spatial imagination in a comprehensive and radically open style (as an aleph).
FIRST SPACE
Practice of space (perceived space): The spatial prac- tice that poses and presupposes social space slowly and surely produces space as it dominates and takes possession of it. It is mediated by human activity, be- havior, and experience (repetitive routines).
SECOND SPACE
Representation of space (space to be thought). Iden- tifies lived experience and perceived objects with thought objects. It is constituted through the means (knowledge, symbols, rules) of decoding spatial prac- tices (actions) connected to order and design.
THIRD SPACE
A space that differs from, but encompasses, the other two spaces. The third space is different from the other two spaces, but encompasses them. It embodies a com- plex symbolic system (the darkness of social life, under- ground aspects, art, etc.).
HISTORY
In the past, Ikebukuro was located in the valley of the Tsurumaki River, which is rich in spring water, and peo- ple used to access this abundant water source to make a living by growing vegetables. However, as time went on and development progressed, the valley was filled with soil, the Tsurumaki River was culverted, and the water was no longer visible from Ikebukuro, and its fertile past was forgotten by the people. By unlocking the under- ground water in the basement of Marui, which is locat- ed on the border between the plains and the valley, and making it behave above ground, we can create an every- day relationship between water and people, and make it a place where the memory of Ikebukuro is passed on.
House for Geckos
Standing on an open space near Building No.3, this pigeon tower is a new landmark in midorigaoka area and provides a chance to observe animal’s behavior. Through the study of the ecology of pigeon and the typology of pigeon house, a tower is decided for it can protect pigeons from their enemies. From limited materials, plywood is used for the whole tower. The outside skin is a surface structure made by bending and overlapping the plywood. The inside wooden boxes act as individual house for the pigeon and help to support the surface structure. The beam on the top follows the spiral tendencies of boxes and thus points diagonally to the boundary of space. Together with the topography, this creates a dynamic relationship between tower and surrounding.
Ryoku-Do Tower
The qualities of the site is the view on passing trains with close access to the station, also it is between the old little house and the backside of a big shopping mall.
The project explores the concept of an ur- ban capsule hotel, where the rooms are only for sleeping and relaxing, while the main ac- tivites happens outside of the capsule – in the common spaces like terraces as well as in the corridors and of course the lively area of Jiyu- gaoka. The room unit explores the idea of the “capsule thrown to the city”.