The assignment is to design a “palazzo” in Aoyama. The site is located on the boundary of a “block”, which is a typical component of urban area in Tokyo. It is a transition area between low-dense social housing area and a main commercial street with high-rises standing along.
The concept of the project is to create two kinds of distinctive spaces in one building with open spaces in lower floors and private spaces in upper floors. It is designed to deal with the complex functions, which is supposed to be the key characteristic for a Tokyo palazzo. In consideration of the urban fabric, the volume continues the interface of the street in the same height with the next building. In the lower part, ward office is set to be the primary function, which can be a core to combine public functions for the community. There is a wide open shared space in the ground floor to link the two sides of the site and different functions are organized in the form of blocks to make the remaining part floating spaces. In the upper part, office and apartments act as introverted spaces showing another face of this building. Also, the apartments take the form of a patio in the middle to echo the two typical cases of palazzo nearby.
Waste Disposal
While in the early Meji Period the disposal of waste was part of a spatially limited and circular network, linking agricultural fields with markets and houses, and from there, when not recycled, again to the fields, the economic and demographic growth of the post-war period, especially in Tokyo, saw the introduction of public waste collection, primarily disposed of in landfills. This unilinear processing from production to consumption began to be increasingly called into question, starting in the mid-1980’s with the introduction of a new recycling system involving an evermore refined rubbish separation for recyclable goods, the exploitation of mix-waste for energy in large power stations, and hazardous waste being exported and reprocessed overseas. The waste-management system has thus evolved into a large, complex, and sometimes invisible chain involving multiple actors. Waste is no longer perceived as either a purely homogenous and useful resource or solely as landfill material, but rather as consisting of different constituents with varying values and repurposing potentials.
Wike House
How can we use the Wike House project by Robert Venturi, to think of a building that incorporates a specific program fitting a designated site in a totally opposed context – Tokyo? The intention of this idea seems, for many to be arbitrary. We do not think so. The suburban context in which most of Robert Venturi’s are located and the very visual play with these contextual elements can also be found in the undesigned environment of contemporary Tokyo. We extracted three conditions from the Wike House, each of which interested us: two houses in one – guesthouse vs. owner; secret garden, since what is behind this house is unknown and front vs. back
Starting from here the main question was: How does Venturi’s design deal with these conditions and how can we apply them in our version. The volume of our design forms an L-shape in order to create a peripheral block-like courtyard (or secret garden). The two programmatic volumes are separated on the entrance level to enable a sneak peek into the garden from the street. On the upper floors, the two parts (actually two distinct houses) are connected, creating a bridge like appearance in the volume. As in the Wike House, the appearance and setup of our two main facades are quite different. Our proposal suggests an ordinary (for Tokyo) street facade and an open court facade. The relation front vs. back is, as in Venturi’s design, not merely an abstract idea, but an actual structural fact. The construction of the outer skin in concrete with recessed windows contrasts with the lighter internal glass façade. In this manner our intention is to experiment with the same methods of spatial articulation and outside communication we have examined in the work of Robert Venturi
Childcare / YIMBY
Low wages, long working hours, and an increasing burden due to the excessive demands of parents cause a shortage of childcare workers. There is also the NIMBY problem, where residents’ opposition to the construction of childcare facilities has forced them into poor conditions, such as under elevated railway tracks. All of these problems are caused by the fact that childcare is regarded as someone else’s business. A binary pits child welfare against economic activity and living conditions and excludes it. We tear away the asphalt that is paved by egoism. The soil opens up childcare, which used to be on the “other side” of the wall, to the city through activities such as composting, fieldwork and, children’s play in the soil.
SHRinne Hotel
SHRINNE HOTEL
In Japan, there is a religious space as an open space that is closely related to the lives of ur- ban citizens. Not only during the festival, but it is also a space like a public square where nearby people gather in daily life.
The annual festival is the most important ritual held annually at shrines. The annual festival is held once a year, often on a day that people can gather this public space.
at th same time, A mikoshi is a sacred reli- gious palanquin (also translated as a portable Shinto shrine). Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between the main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when moving to a new shrine. Often, the mikoshi resembles a miniature building, with pillars, walls, a roof, a veranda, and a railing.
During a matsuri (Japanese festival) involving a mikoshi, people bear the mikoshi on their shoulders by means of two, four (or some- times, rarely, six) poles. They bring the mikoshi from the shrine, carry it around the neighbor- hoods that worship at the shrine, and in many cases leave it in a designate.