This is a rental apartment building consists of one-room dwelling units for singles and couples located in a quiet and calm residential district of Tokyo.
In order to attain distance from traffic where which the site is wrapped by roads on three sides, the strategy is to compact the building in the center of the site to create buffer spaces between the project and its surroundings. In the center of the building that spans 6x6m is a staircase that is 2x2m in dimension. This staircase opens up and is filled with diffused light from above. The building exterior is wrapped all with double-glazing. Translucent glass louvers are placed outside the Japanese standard 60 cm window frame. This in-between space becomes an intermediate space similar to the traditional Japanese verandah “engawa.” The openable window area in each unit is maximized. Residents can comfortably live without having curtains by opening and closing these glass louvers manually and controlling wind, light and view. Here also, BSB (Basic Space Block) have been used as composition of spatial units, and the space of each unit is bent and twisted 3 dimensionally to arouse a mysterious spatial experience. The exterior appearances of the building change constantly according to the residents’ opening and closing the glass louvers.