Montblanc House / Studio Velocity
Architects: Studio Velocity
Location: Okazaki, Japan
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Kentaro Kurihara
Noh House / Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates
The Noh House was built for a Noh performer within a quiet residential area in Tokyo. The traditional Japanese musical drama has been performed for over 700 years, and the Noh stage is composed of a main stage and a bridge (runway) that connects to a backstage. While meeting the client’s functional requirements such as daily living spaces and a Noh rehearsal room, Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates wanted to incorporate the soul of Noh into the architecture.
Architects: Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Project Team: Koji Tsutsui, Takashi Sugimoto
Structural Engineers: Takashi Manda
General Contractor: Heisei Construction Co., Ltd
Project Area: 162.90 sqm
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Masao Nishikawa
Curved Little House / Studio Velocity
Architects: Studio Velocity
Location: Nagoya, Japan
Project area: 41 sqm
Photographs: Kentaro Kurihara
House D / Takeshi Hamada
Architects: Takeshi Hamada
Location: Osaka, Japan
Project area: 100 sqm
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Takeshi Hamada
T-Apartment / Soeda and Architects
Architects: Soeda And Architects – Takayuki Soeda
Location: Kanagawa, Japan
Structural engineer: Masaki Yoshida/YSE
Constructor: Watanabe Isamu Komuten
Project area: 456 sqm
Project year: 2005 – 2007
Photographs: Takumi Ota
Industrial Designer House / Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates
In a quiet residential area in metropolitan Tokyo resides the Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates constructed Industrial Designer House. The client required that that the house be not only private in nature but also in coexistence with the client’s feelings for his life’s work, industrial design.
Architect’s description and photographs following the break.
Architects: Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Project Team: Koji Tsutsui
Structural Engineers: Jun Sato Structural Engineers
General Contractor: Heisei Kensetsu
Project Area: 105.39 sqm
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Masao Nishikawa
M-Apartment / Soeda and Architects
Architects: Soeda And Architects – Takayuki Soeda
Location: Kanagawa, Japan
Structural engineer: b-farm
Constructor: Watanabe Isamu Komuten
Project area: 456 sqm
Project year: 2005 – 2007
Photographs: Ryota Atarashi
House in Utsunomiya / Soeda and Architects
Architects: Soeda And Architects – Takayuki Soeda
Location: Tochigi, Japan
Structural engineer: Masaki Yoshida/YSE
Constructor: Seijo Kensetsu
Project area: 164 sqm
Project year: 2009 – 2010
Photographs: Takumi Ota
De Beers Ginza Building / Jun Mitsui & Associates Architects
Architects: Jun Mitsui & Associates Architects
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Design Team: Jun Mitsui, Jim Lambiasi, Kazumasa Toku
Project area: 4,022 sqm
Project year: 2005 – 2008
Photographs: Naoomi Kurozumi
InBetween House / Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates
Designed by Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates the InBetween House is a collection of small mountain cottages situated amongst Japanese larch trees in a mountainous region outside of Tokyo. A retreat from their busy work in the city, the clients wanted a house that could seamlessly blend into the natural surrounding, topography and local culture.
Architects: Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates
Location: Karuizawa, Nagano, Japan
Project Team: Koji Tsutsui, Satoshi Ohkami
Structural Engineers: ANARCHItects(CG), Hirotsugu Tsuboi
General Contractor: Sasazawa Construction, Inc.
Project Area: 178.43 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Iwan Baan
House A / Takeshi Hamada
Architects: Takeshi Hamada
Location: Osaka, Japan
Project area: 128 sqm
Project year: 2010 – 2011
Photographs: Yohei Sasakura
The Ice Cubes / Jun Mitsui & Associates Architects
Architects: Jun Mitsui & Associates Architects
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Design Team: Jun Mitsui, Yukinobu Nakano, Kentaro Hayashi, Jim Lambiasi, Kazumasa Toku, Naoko Morimoto, Shigeki Irie, Ei Ishiyama
Project area: 3,060 sqm
Project year: 2006 – 2008
Photographs: Naoomi Kurozumi
Hoto Fudo / Takeshi Hosaka Architects
This building is similar to the inside and outside house we previously featured. The project was planned on the site with Mt. Fuji rising closely in the south and the two sides facing the trunk roads. Takeshi Hosaka Architects wanted this building to take on the characteristics of mountains and clouds. It is made from soft geometry, which are not derived from the figures like quadrangles and circles. By continuously operating innumerable polygon mesh points, Takeshi Hosaka Architects have determined the shape that clears the conditions such as the consistency as shell construction and the undulations that ward off rainwater in spite of its free geometry. The RC shell with cubic surfaces creates such spaces as 530 sqm, 140 sqm of kitchens, and 50 sqm of rest rooms, in such a manner that it envelops and opens them.
Architect: Takeshi Hosaka Architects
Location: Yamanashi, Japan
Structural Engineer: Ove Arup & Partners Japan / Hitoshi Yonamine
Project Area: site 2,493.82 sqm, building area 733.98 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Koji Fujii / Nacasa&Pertners Inc.
Update: Ex-Container Project / Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects
Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects are continuing to move forward assisting those who have been displaced following the Japan earthquake and tsunami. The Ex-Container Project, which we featured just last week, is one affordable design solution offering easy transport and installation without compromising quality.
Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects are providing daily updates, via their Twitter account, about the reconstruction progress in the disaster areas.
Further details about the project and how you can offer support can be found here.
Inside House & Outside House / Takeshi Hosaka Architects
This is a residence consisting of an inside house and outside house. It is also a proposal of architecture of a new relationship between internal and external. Because the site is an irregular shape, the planar shapes of the rooms in the two cubes of “inside house” and “outside house” are irregular shapes. In the two cubes, there are glass windows and wooden-board windows in the peripheries, and any room lets in light and wind from the windows and the inside house intermingles with outside house through windows.
Architect: Takeshi Hosaka Architects
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Structural Engineer: Nobuo Sakane
Project Area: site 95.98 sqm, building area 37.32 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Masao Nishikawa
House in Ise / Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates
Architects: Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates
Location: Mie, Japan
Project area: 144 sqm
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates
Ex-Container Project / Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects
Led by Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects in association with Nowhere Resort, the main purpose of the Ex-Container Project is to provide immediate housing for those who were displaced following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on 11th of March, 2011.
Utilizing the format of ISO shipping containers the homes are easy to transport and offer a higher quality housing solution at an affordable price. Thinking beyond the short-term, the Ex-Container Project can initially be built as a temporary house and then converted to a permanent architectural structure.
Further details about the project and how you can offer support can be found here.
Hongodai Christ Church School & Nursery / Takeshi Hosaka Architects
The Hongodai Christ Church School & Nursery is a complex of church school (2nd floor) and nursery (1st floor) administered by Protestant Christ church. The premises are located at a greenery area in Yokohama city surrounded by fields, parks and hills in the neighborhood. It has been planned in the open space such that places for children to stay are mixed into forest with rich natural environment.
Architect: Takeshi Hosaka Architects
Location: Yokohama, Japan
Structural Engineer: Ove Arup & Partners Japan Ltd / Hitoshi Yonamine
Project Area: site 1,332.92 sqm, building area 265.97 sqm, total floor area 531.94
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Masao Nishikawa
Silent Office / Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates
Architects: Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Project area: 586 sqm
Project year: 2007
Photographs: Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates
Aomori Museum of Art / Jun Aoki & Associates
Aomori Museum of Art is situated next to an excavation site of the Sannai Maruyama ruins. These ruins are widely respected as an important heritage of the Jomon period (10,000 – 300 BC), not only since the established theory, agriculture had not yet been developed was abandoned because planned cultivation, such as chestnut, was revealed. But also because the community already systematized their agricultural methods which could be seen by the hugeness of the colony scale. Using this cultural heritage as the core element, Aomori Prefecture decided to forge a basis of art culture and determined its beginning in building an art museum on the spot which directly adjoins the ruins.
Architect: Jun Aoki & Associates
Location: Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture, Japan
Structural Engineer: Kanebako Structural Engineers
Mechanical Engineer: P.T. Morimura & Associates. Ltd.
Sound technical design: Nagata Acoustics
Soil research & technical method: Sakura –deco, INax
Construction: JV of Takenaka, Nishimatsu, Okumura and Hokuto corporation
Project Area: site area (129,536.37 sqm), building area (7,228.72 sqm), floor area (21,133.13 sqm)
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Daici Ano
