The site is located between reinforced concrete mid-to-high-rise apartments and an old wooden housing area, where it almost feels like you are left out in an island. It is a dwelling for a couple with music studio, in such a complex Tokyo-like environment. We felt it is not appropriate to have a building for this particular site that is either “building type or “house type.” So we made a volume to be gradually connecting the two facades, the apartment side with a small window on vertical big wall and the housing side with a large “Mado” and low leaves. The volume needed to be closed and “inward-looking” for music studio space but at the same time the space should spread beyond the site for the couple’s livelihood.
It recently has become quite natural to live in “inward-looking” space in such high-density urban space. On the other hand, it is important to obtain open-minded life to develop its potential of diverse and complex surrounding environments. We believe it is important to challenge the hybrid configuration and environment such as this project in the modern city.
Photography by Shinkenchiku-sya
