TETRIS TERRACE
The block including the site locates right in the south from Jiyugaoka Station. The site con- sists of two types of void following our classify; courtyard type and rooftop type.
The former is in the middle of the block and now used as a parking lot, having potential to be built something. The latter is rooftops of surrounding building which are left unused yet have various places with different level.
In addition, the site is in between two areas, commercial and residential. So it would fit to the program of accommodation.
We made unused rooftops parts of architec- ture. Then we built a volume in the courtyard type void. Depending on the charcteristics of the rooftop terraces, we deformed daily life and gave a specificities to 7 each rooms.
In this way, we formed each room as a set of a inside room and a rooftop terrace. In order to make the architecture a benchmark, we designed a rectangular volume of reignforced concrete structure with minimal facade, yet complex with different form of rooms and a staircase inside. The architecure hence looks seemingly very simple, however, consists of different characters of rooms with full of un- predictability.
THE REPAIRER PRODUCTION
Focusing on the behavior of maintainers in Ike- bukuro, this project aims to propose an alternative way to the maintenance free system and relying on repair services. Here, maintenance skills can be trans- mitted, acquired and practiced. People in Ikebukuro can bring their unwanted items from the city and re- cycle them into the things needed to run the building. When things used in this building break down, they can be brought here again for maintenance. The pic- ture (Image 3) shows the cycle of goods throughout the Marui Building from the aspect of maintenance.
The design process went through the following pro- cess. First, we observed the behavior of “MAINTAIN- ERs” in Ikebukuro and analyzed the tools, the sur- rounding environment, clothing, and how they relate to the object of maintenance. As a result, we were able to find a connection between each maintenance be- havior by focusing on the “gloves” they wore.
Secondly, we categorized each maintenance behavior by the “gloves” people use, and efficiently arranged tools, sinks and desks suitable for each behavior.
Finally, by connecting the zones divided by the types of “gloves” with desks, rivers, and hanging shelves, we designed a mixture that would create a transmis- sion of skills.
Affection towards building and cities depends on whether they can be SELF MAINTAINED. Therefore, by creating this floor, we are able to develop a stronger attraction to the MARUI Building and Ikebukuro.
Laundry
The importance of laundry as a part of Japanese everyday life has steadily declined, mainly due to the reduction of the time, space, and tools required to perform this household task. This development has not only been caused by technical progress, such as the introduction of electrical washing machines and dryers, but also by demographic and societal developments, in particular the changing role of women in Japanese society. Even though the appearance of coin-operated launderettes in the post-war years, combined sometimes with public baths, introduced a new form of communality, overall the collective aspect of doing laundry chores has decreased drastically from the pre-modern period to the present. Today washing activity is split between a variety of laundry settings and forms, ranging—dependent on the residential environments that coexist in contemporary Japanese society—from minimal washing units, to the use of balconies or bathroom dehumidifiers for drying, to communal spaces.
Re-bridge
Using the power of a firmly established running praxis as a resource, our derived intervention aims at the reconnection of Imperial Palace and Kitanomaru Park “on foot”. Since Kitanomaru Park provides all the Intervention & expansion Architectural elements improving the running experience Running clubs New bridge as reconnection essentials identified around Imperial Palace, the switch for the (re-)connection of both areas is to bridge the dividing traffic at a wellsuited site. This site was found at the National Museum of Modern Art Crafts, whose situation can hereby be improved as well.
Staircase
From the Meiji Period to today the techniques of firefighting have shifted from the protection of a district, with large main streets or fire-resistant storehouses providing firebreaks, to en-masse fire-protected buildings, ensuring people’s ability to escape a conflagration. In the post-war period, with the densification of Tokyo, the vertical concrete staircases in multistory buildings—which themselves served as firebreaks along the main streets—became the major escape route, complemented by various types of devices that can be used from balconies or windows. In contemporary high-rises the common circulation system has become host to an entire emergency system, with smoke and gas detectors, alarms connected to ground-floor emergency centers, sprinklers, fireproof staircases, special emergency fire-fighter elevators, and even rooftop helicopter landing-pads.