Photographer: Takeshi Yamagishi | ArchDaily

House “irfn” / Daisuke Yamashita Architects

Hana Abdel — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 20:00:00 +0000

This residence is for a married couple with two children. It was built on a typical small plot in a highly dense urban area.

21 Projects Where Kengo Kuma (Re)Uses Materials in Unusual Ways

José Tomás Franco — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Kengo Kuma uses materials to connect with the local context and the users of his projects. The textures and elementary forms of constructive systems, materials, and products, are exhibited and used in favor of the architectural concept, giving value to the functions that will be carried out in each building.

From showcases made with ceramic tiles to the sifted light created by expanded metal panels, passing through an ethereal polyester coating, Kuma understands the material as an essential component that can make a difference in architecture from the design stages. Next, we present 21 projects where Kengo Kuma masterfully uses construction materials.

Gokayama Cross Base / yHa architects

Hana Abdel — Mon, 02 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is a project selected in the tourist base facility proposal that Nakagawa City called for the purpose of sightseeing promotion in September 2016 as part of the development project around the Gokayama dam lake that was completed in 2018.

Restaurants in Azabu-juban / KOJI AOKI + AAOAA + a design

Hana Abdel — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 22:00:00 +0000

A tenant building planned in Azabu-juban. Azabu-juban is located on complex terrain interwoven with plateaus and valleys, and the site is surrounded by steep slopes and retaining walls. For instance, the neighboring Kurayamizaka (Dark Slope) is said to have been so named for the trees that were dense enough to cover the slope, making it dim even in the daytime. From the top of the retaining wall facing the site, the trees in the neighboring yard cast dark shadows on the building. There are also legends, called the Seven Wonders of Azabu, which are about the ponds, swamps, and oddly shaped trees in the area. The topographical singularities of the land once gave birth to stories, but they are no longer handed down and have been forgotten as memories of a distant land. When something once familiar but forgotten and estranged over a long time appears before us, we feel an “eerie” sensation.

House in Kamiikebukuro / UmbreArchitects

Pilar Caballero — Fri, 28 May 2021 01:00:00 +0000

The area around the site is a densely built-up wooden area where roads are being improved and buildings are being made non-combustible and earthquake resistant as a fire spread barrier zone in order to create a city that is resistant to disaster prevention.

Spotlight: Kengo Kuma

Dario Goodwin — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 04:30:00 +0000

Kengo Kuma (born 8th August, 1956) is one of the most significant Japanese figures in contemporary architecture. His reinterpretation of traditional Japanese architectural elements for the 21st century has involved serious innovation in uses of natural materials, new ways of thinking about light and lightness and architecture that enhances rather than dominates. His buildings don't attempt to fade into the surroundings through simple gestures, as some current Japanese work does, but instead his architecture attempts to manipulate traditional elements into statement-making architecture that still draws links with the area its built in. These high-tech remixes of traditional elements and influences have proved popular across Japan and beyond, and his recent works have begun expanding out of Japan to China and the West.

Split-Level Homes: 50 Floor Plan Examples

Fabian Dejtiar — Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Faced with the challenge of designing homes on terrains with steep slopes - or in compact urban contexts that do not allow much variation in plan - several architects have experimented and proposed split-level homes to enhance the use of space, allowing, among other things, interesting visual perspectives.

Corrugated-Sheet House / Daisuke Yamashita Architects

Rayen Sagredo — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 19:00:00 +0000

This residence is for five families of a couple and three children in Aisai City of western Aichi Prefecture. It was built within a corner of a large site adjacent to a plot of the main house. Since urbanization in this area is controlled, the surrounding plots were by consequence largely empty; because the environment lacked a clear context, the resultant building was designed as an extremely simple geometric shape.

House in Iwasawa / Opensite architecture studio

Daniela Cardenas — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 19:00:00 +0000

This housing project for family of four adults. Family need four private rooms and small shared space (living, ding and kitchen), because they are different time zone of life. However, I think do not want to plan such as closed each private rooms. I think put the gradations to the distance of the private rooms. So, I created this housing It's like "minimum apartments".

Venice Biennale 2014: Japan Pavilion to Examine Radical Experiments of the 1970s

Karissa Rosenfield — Wed, 07 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The influence of Western civilization and the birth of modernization following World War II lead Japan to become the world’s second largest economy by 1968. With this came a host of problems, namely environmental pollution and the oil crisis, which triggered the reexamination of modernism in Japanese architecture and a series of radical experiments by young architects that inevitably lead to a new vision of the city.

House in Yokawa / Mosaic Design

Diego Hernández — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The house is located in Yokawa, which is in the south-central part of Hyogo Prefecture.

T-House / Satoru Ito Architects

Javier Gaete — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 01:00:00 +0000

This House is designed as a “set of wall”. When a wall is set up in a place, it divides the space, blocks the path, makes directionality and cuts off the view. But when the walls are many, there are a lot of connection and path of view as well as a lot of directions. This kind of space encourages us to decipher it and adapt ourselves to the environment actively.

M House / D.I.G Architects

Daniel Sánchez — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A small house built on a narrow site.

Asakusa Culture and Tourism Center / Kengo Kuma & Associates

Fabian Cifuentes — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:30:00 +0000

In the corner premise of just 326㎡ across Kaminari-mon Gate, the building was required to accommodate plural programs such as tourist information center, conference room, multi-purpose hall and an exhibition space.

Kanayama Community Center / Kengo Kuma & Associates

Victoria King — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The site is located at the foot of Kanayama Castle, known for its beautiful stone wall and stone pavement. It is a community center incorporating guidance facilities for this historic place and a workshop for local residents to learn handicraft and dyeing. The site is divided at near the center by a 6m difference in levels. Bearing this physical feature in mind, it was designed to form a lane loosely connecting the two facilities, taking in a sense of distance towards its rich surrounding nature. Technically, volume of the two-story community center is replaced by a breast wall, and is connected on the 2nd level to the guidance facility via ‘community square’ on the 2nd floor, thus providing a circulative layout. The entire architecture therefore is the breast wall.

Ebi / yHa architects + L&C design

Andrew Rosenberg — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Complex building in Ebisu near Shibuya, Tokyo. Lower floor is shop and upper floor is apartment or office like SOHO. Every floor have small terrace that are enchased on for providing an evacuation route from upper floor. This building is facing on urban planned road and this building have a possibility to be set-back from the road and 3-floor is limited on the planned extension road from law.

YNH / yujin HIRASE

Andrew Rosenberg — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I thought mainly how to connect with time axis of surrounding history of the site that a military commander made a "fort" during the Age of Civil Wars (15-16th century) . The site of north/west is road and south/east is the neighboring house, so the major theme is the way of taking a sunlight. I designed 3-floor void as "light-tube" by analogy of "fort" like Scotish Tower-House. The room on each floor are arranged around "light-tube" like a square in the house and the inner-opening facing the void make a role as linking by one's eyes between the room.

IVY House / SPEAC

Nico Saieh — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This was a deserted house that called a haunted house because of the ivy covering the whole. We renovated it as a dwelling and office.