Funabashi Postoffice 2

Funabashi Postoffice: A Post Office Building with Window as the Entrance of Communication

Located in Funabashi, Chiba with 144 m2 in size, Funabashi Postoffice is designed by Kubo Tsushima Architects. As a Japanese post office, this building is a facility dealing with deposit, postal, and insurance services closely on the daily lives’ needs of the local resident. The window is characterized, especially its architecture design, considered as the entrance of communication.

Minami Yamashiro Elementary School 2

Minami Yamashiro Elementary School: A Life-Long Learning Building with A Concrete Frame

Located in Kyoto, Japan, Minami Yamashiro Elementary School is commissioned by the mayor of Minami Yamashiro to reunite the local community. It is not only a school but also a community center. Designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and completed in 2003, the result is a modern building with a concrete structure that offers life-long learning and evening classes for the community’s adult population and daytime schooling for children.

Fireworks House 2

Fireworks House: A Private House for Client’s Mother to See Fireworks through Glass Panels

This private house is designed by Nendo from Japan, located in Japan’s Chichibu region where the residents look forward to the festival of annual December fireworks. Completed in 2015, Fireworks House is built for the client who wants her elderly mother to be able to watch the fireworks from the festival. Part of the roof is replaced with glass panels so it is very easy to see the fireworks from upstairs.

Stairway House 31

Stairway House: A Two-Family Home with A “Stairway-Like” Structure and Functional Elements

Located in a quiet residential area of Tokyo, Stairway House sits on a site with other apartment buildings and houses pressing around. This two-family home is designed by Nendo with an architectural volume that pushes to the north and a layout plan to preserve the existing persimmon tree. The “stairway-like” structure connects the house interior to the yard and also bonds one household to another, supported by some functional elements of the house.

Two Apartments Across The Alley Square 7

Two Apartment Buildings around A Roji Park: Apartment Interiors with A Wider Space

The interiors of the building are soft and natural with white surfaces and the use of wood materials for some parts of the building, including the beams on the ceiling and floor design. From the outside, this building looks like a concrete square with a flat roof. Being in a narrow alley doesn’t mean it is impossible to design a new building with a wider space in it.