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.
While imagining the children’s activities at the floor level of the building, the design is also adjusted so the interference between the wall and the ceiling is achieved and the exact result of the design can be shown. A diverse and free space is also created that can’t be understood from the design plan alone.
The space under the stairs can be transformed into a rental store, the corridor on the second floor becomes a workspace, and the stairs on the third floor can be used with house furniture integrally. By combining the use of space and stairs, there is another use inside the house while having the original uses of each other.
Made of steel and glass, the staircase acts as an expansion joint between the two concrete volumes. The front volume of the building is counterweighed by a matt slab of 1.2 meters due to the seismic risk in Japan and its tall-thin proportion. The architect adds a roof terrace enclosed by a perimeter wall of 2.4m to increase the slenderness. This addition can result in a very unusual proportion of 1:7.7.
Alana Groom
Bella Duckworth
Ella Summers
Karin Hoover
Linjo Joson
Molly Milson
TraceyC