House in Takadanobaba

The site for this private residence is an urban gap left over from relentless sub-divisioning, a 22m deep yet only 4.7m wide strip squeezed between built masses in central Tokyo. When the brief asked for a wide open living space where breathing within the confines of the city was possible, we proposed an architecture of the exterior that claims the space around it by extending beyond its limits.

Moving through the building reveals strikingly different atmospheres along the three levels’ alternating orientations. As there are no partitioned rooms, the sites’ unusual depth is felt and emphasised on each level. Soft fabrics countering the hardness of the concrete add layers of ambiguous spatial nuances.

Structural Openness

The conceptual openness is achieved by dissolving structural rigidity into a liberating play of alternating pin connections. The floor-wall-ceiling fold becomes a structurally continuous frame that is held both apart and together by a few incredibly fine steel columns: 80mm diameter on the first and second, 60mm on the third floor. The wall between the columns functions like a tall beam. Lateral torsion by seismic forces is countered by the structure making use of the building’s length of 18 metres. Seismic shear forces are transmitted downward via the concrete fold and the lateral torsion that occurs during earthquakes is countered by the cross-section’s flat beam-column composite.

Urban Field of Folds

In redefining inside and outside, a field of folds might create pervious continuities in a city of gaps freeing us from the suffocating massiveness of our urban environments.

For more, follow our Picture Book Chronology on the House in Takadanobaba