Omotesandō Street | Tokyo

Omotesandō in a trendy, upscale shopping street in Tokyo filled with over the top architecture designed by, almost exlusively, big names. It stretches from Harajuku to Takeshita and Aoyama-dori, which probably means nothing to you, so here’s a really cool Google map. The people over at PinkMag made a guide of Omotesandō architecture covering all the major buildings and that’s bootyshakingly awesome. I’ll try to upload slideshows of all the buildings throughout the day so edits will follow.

(via: PingMag)

Kisho Kurokawa On The Nakagin Capsule Building

Bringing The Sony Tower in Osaka down was stupid and soulless enough, why bring this pioneer of architectural flexibility down as well? Capitalism can be such a ruthless bitch.

Metal Shutter Houses | Shigeru Ban

This oh-so urban industrial chic project by Shigeru Ban in New York City will be completed in fall this year. The Metal Shutter Houses are a part of a series of shutter homes (see also Shutter House of a Photographer and The Glass Shutter House in Tokyo). The building of 11 stories has 9 duplex apartments with floor areas ranging from 180m2 to 295m2 (the penthouse) and all have walls that can be moved out of the way completely. The facade metal shutters are motorated and serve as privacy screens by covering the double-hight living rooms that are otherwise exposed to the streets. In the penthouse the large windows can be opened completely, leaving no boundaries between the interior and the terrace. The idea for this came from delis and industrial rolling gates to close the storefronts, allowing the house to blend perfectly with the densly built city environment.

slideshow: click

download floorplan: PDF

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(via: freshhome & inhabitat)

63.01° House | Schemata Architecture Office

This is pretty much what you get when you slice a side/front-gabled house in half and build it in Tokyo. It’s sited exactly 63.01° off the road to provide the interior with more sunlight (and stares of freaky neighbours). It’s supposed to be used as a SOHO (small office/ home office) and will be possible to rent. Can you tell that they went with minimalism on this one? But I don’t think it would be too minimalist for comfort. I’d drag a bunch of my stuff in (curtains) and it would make a perfect little home. What’s impressive is that they built it on such a small piece of land and managed to get a decent home out of it. It looks raw on the inside because it is. And that’s ok because it’s honest. They may have pushed the enevelope a bit with this one though, but you be the judge.

slideshow: click

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(via: TreeHugger, photo source: Schemata)

Working For The Mayjah Starchitect

For all of you who think that working for an architectural studio of a high profile, such as SANAA of Kazuyo Seijima and Ryue Nishizawa, is a joyful experience filled with rainbows and unicorns, this is proof of how mistaken you are. An architecture student blogged about her experience as an intern at SANAA in Tokyo and what was told is not pretty. We’ve all probably worked at a studio before and it can get frustrating, I’ll agree. But it was never anything like this story – working for free, all the time. I strongly disagree with the statement they usually throw in your face – that you should be glad you’re even a part of the team and will benefit from the internship in a way money can never cover. Understandably don’t let you do the concept, or let you pick the materials, or define the structure; you are not a part of the creative process and we all know what’s left for us to do. But the conditions you live and work under are dehumanized beyond belief. It has become a common thing that architecture students are treated that way and it is wrong. Can big studios today even sustain without the (nearly) free flow of students/ graduates? What is sad is that when you come to a point in your life when you need to get employed, the portfolio with the ‘starchitects internee’ written on will probably nail you the job – when the employers themselves know it’s a load of crap. The circle is vicious. I hope they’re providing her with food and shelter but they probably switched meals with food pills years ago.

KAIT Kobo | Junya Ishigami

Junya Ishigami designed the KAIT kobo at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology recently. It appears to be a pavillion but is in fact a studio/ workspace. The whole facade is made entierly out of glass that is supported and attached to flat glass ‘columns’; together with the thin roof they give the building an extreme feeling of lightness. The thin steel columns inside offer the building support and give the interior a nice, clean airy look. The studio has more than enough natural light throughout the day comming through the glass facade as well as through the roof windows. The space appears to be empety with only a few tables, workspaces and flower pots. I personally am not feeling the wooden furniture nor the flower pots as they seem a bit random. I hate to nag, greenery is very welcome in a warehouse-like space, but I think that H&deM made it way funkier in their (not yet built) Miami Art Museum. But all in all, very elegant!

slideshow: click

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(via: dezain, photo source: miru-kenchiku)

2 Courts House | Ashizawa Keiji

Keiji is a Tokyo based architect/ designer that established Keiji Ashizawa Design studio around 2004. In 2007 he designed the 2courts house in a densely built residential area of Tokyo. The property had limited building space as far as square footage is concerned and the house had to be squeezed in between existing homes, leaving the architect with a tricky problem to be solved. The tiny area problem, of course, went hand in hand with the privacy problem. He came up with a concept of two courtyards inside the 4 story house – that way the interior was provided with enough natural light despite the house having very little glass surface on the facade. The Japanese sure know their ways around concrete and somehow they pull it of without the space looking too ‘cold’. As much as I like the way he went about this task, I personally would miss having a nice view; although in this case, the view would probably be shitty and I’d have my blinds down all the time. Unless you, you know, like looking at electricity supply cables (photo 8). I bet if I lived there they’d explode and kill me in my sleep.

slideshow: ch-ch-check it out
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( via: neojaponisme, photos: Keiji Ashizawa Design)

Parabola House | Atelier Tekuto

Aah finally, something Japanese. Atelier Tekuto’s Yasuhiro Yamashita designed this new family home in a quet residential area of Tokyo. Measuring only 5m in width and 27m in lenght, the narrow living space is elevated about 3m off the ground so that it has a nice view of Mount Fuji. In the front it is supported by a (crazy) cantilever upon which the living room is situated and covered by a parabolic roof that softens the space.

photos: slideshow

(via: dezeen)

Nicolas G. Hayek Center | Shigeru Ban

The Nicolas G. Hayek Center is the new Swatch store in Ginza, Tokyo. It was built in 2007 and has 13 floors that are connected by hydraulic glass elevators. Every elevator is a showroom moving at 15m/min that connects visitors to one of the 7 stores. Each of the Swatch’s luxury labels has its own store and is completely white to better showcase the watches. On the very top floor is the exhibition space that is used for different events. What I love the most is the amount of greenery used in this building; it makes it look like an urban oasis. I got this feed a while ago but there wasn’t any photos of the project around and I didn’t want to use cheesy renderings so here goes…

photos: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(via: JeanSnow, timezone)

Fujiya Ginzan | Kengo Kuma

In 2004 Kengo Kuma undertook a project in Ginzan Onsen (hot springs) district of Yamagata on the request of the owners of a 350-year-old inn. The owner’s wife, Jeanie Fuji (US), a traditionaly trained okami (female innkeeper), went through strict training led by her mother-in-law about how she is to act, serve food and greet the guest old Japanese style in their traditional wooden inn. The building itself can not provide enough character (as a whole) for an inn so devoted staff is crucial. What happens too often in all projects really is the whole thing gets westernized. Everywhere around the world. Buildings lacking in character could all use a touch of loaclity. Fuji Atsushi (the owner) wrote: Nipponjin ni wa, Nihon ga Tarinai which translates to ”Japanese people are not Japanese enough”. ‘‘The inn has five beautiful private hotsprings baths including an open-air bath on the top floor.” Embracing their customs and history in this new age is very important to him so to top it all they serve fresh japanese food based on washoku (Japanese cusine).

photos: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Fujiya Inn website

(via: The Cool Hunter, photos: Fujiya Inn and The Cool Hunter)