The area in front of Jiyugaoka station North exit is exposed to intensive flows of people as well as various things and events in the town. From early morning to midnight, scenes change constantly through local people’s ac- tivities, the tides of 160,000 commuters and visitors a day, car and train fluxes, and the operations of shops and offices, all of which punctuate the apparently chaotic scenes into unique rhythms of the town like slow breath- ing.
Now almost buried among recent high-rise buildings, five two-storey shops facing the sta- tion square still remain as the face of the town, and one would notice the shops share an un- even yet similar-height roofline. Once noticed, the contrast between new high-rises and the surviving low-rises looks like a reminder of old Jiyugaoka back in the rapidly fading past.
Our accommodation project “YOUR PRIVATE SKY” redefines the now-hidden roofline into an open space for the shop customers and lo- cal and visiting rooftop lovers, while providing special access to sky and townscape only with the guests.
Student: Kunrong Du
Private Garage
Spaces sometimes surpass or deviate from the expectations of their designers. While conceived as a specific space to park one’s car, garages are often transformed into storage-spaces, workshops, or even living rooms, revealing the ambiguous status of this space as both an extension of exterior and interior activities alike. Correspondingly, the car itself can be understood either conventionally and functionally as a vehicle to drive from one place to the other or as a space of intimacy for living, resting, or even hiding. This appropriation can, as in advertisements, transform the car itself into an object of desire, to be cared for and even cherished as a piece of art to be exhibited in one’s home.