The concrete walls of this Tokyo house have been created by architect Hugo Kohno to stage in and out, providing the building further structural assistance whilst making created-in shelves and seating .
Tokyo-based mostly Hugo Kohno Architect Associates created the three-storey home for a site in Edogawa, an area on the east bank of the Edo River.
The consumer requested a concrete house. But the ground problem in the area is quite soft, so a complicated structural technique that integrates timber had to be developed to achieve this without creating the constructing as well hefty.
“For a 3-storey reinforced-concrete building, we would want to set up pile foundations driven deep into the assistance layer, which would be unrealistic due to the huge building price,” explained Kohno.
“In order to decrease the bodyweight of the constructing, we [instead] adopted a composite structural system comprised of reinforced exterior concrete walls and traditional timber infill.”
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To give the external walls added strength against seismic and wind loads, different sections were pushed back and forth. This creates the stepped profile, which is visible both within and out.
Kohno describes these measures as “cranks” and named the building after them. Inside, they double up as perform surfaces, benches and shelves. They also give frames for huge windows.
“The ‘cranks’ continue during the interior and exterior, creating a sense of ample spatial continuity,” explained Kohno. “At the same time, the crank-shaped walls generate a new expression of reinforced-concrete architecture, and accentuate the room and the creating with patterns of deep shadows.”
The house’s other features contain a courtyard concealed behind the concrete walls, which is overlooked from a variety of rooms inside of the constructing, as well as secluded balconies on the two of the upper floors.
The major living and dining spaces occupy an open-program room on the middle floor, which opens out to a single of the balconies. There is also a classic Japanese-style tatami area on this level.
Bedrooms and bathrooms get up the uppermost floor, while the ground floor accommodates a entrance lobby, as properly as sheltered parking spaces for the two vehicles and bicycles.
Other just lately completed houses in Tokyo contain a combined house and workplace for a hair stylist and a writer, and a seemingly windowless residence with black textured walls.
Photography is Seiichi Ohsawa.
Undertaking credits:
Architect: Hugo Kohno Architect Associates
Structural engineer: Kentaro Nagasaka
Ground floor prepare 
First floor plan 
Second floor strategy 
Section a single 
Part two
