Japanese studio Niji Architects has squeezed two houses into its Town House in Takaban, which attributes a steeply pitched roof, windowless gables and strips of horizontal steel cladding .
The block sits on a tiny 31-square-metre plot just a couple of minutes from Gakugei-daigaku Station in Tokyo’s Takaban distric.
Rising nine metres above the ground and completed with a steeply pitched roof, it accommodates two 3-storey rental residences, every with a 36-square-metre floor strategy.
Bands of white galvalume steel sheeting wrap the gabled structure horizontally, providing it the resemblance of a standard clapboard timber home. The Japanese firm, which has offices in each Tokyo and Kobe, previously utilized the material to produce a a Tokyo residence that seems to be like an industrial building.
Although the cladding runs across the two windowless gables to give the residents with privacy in the built-up location, the two side walls and roof feature large windows and skylights. Porches lower into diagonal corners of the constructing offer separate entrances to the two residences.
Associated story: Cafeteria with exposed timber framework by Niji Architects
The residences, which have identical plans, are separated by an elongated S-shaped wall that splits the house east to west. This curving wall narrows in the direction of doorways and opens out to provide a lot more generous living spaces.
“Lines derived from restrictions on north and the street gave it a gable form,” said the architects. “A diagonally positioned parting wall and the aid of substantial ceiling gives guests an impression of spaciousness, masking the modest floor region.”
A white spiral staircase with a slender handrail winds by way of each of the two apartments from an entrance hall and bathroom at ground level, to a living region on the very first floor and a mezzanine bedroom sitting below the sloping roof.
The big skylight and wide residing room windows cast curving patterns of light and shadow across the walls and sloped ceiling.
“Via the perform of light and shadow, the tenants experience the cycle of the day, and their existence turns into something a bit much more specific in the softly ascending vertical room,” explained the architects.
“The windows on every unit are reversed east-west from every other, making it possible for the direct and indirect light to develop very distinct spaces whilst the place stays the identical,” they added. “From this distinction, each and every unit gains a charming personality and enables for similar property pricing.”
The apartments are finished with white walls and pale timber floors, permitting new rental tenants to customise the spaces to suit their personal tastes.
“Inside and out, the detailing provides an abstract impression of absolutely nothing but room, this kind of that the tenant has only the pure experience of light and sky,” explained the studios.
“It is hoped that every single tenant from now on will also deliver a bit of their personal colour and take pleasure in a tiny bit of unique in their life.”
Task credits:
Architecture: Niji Architects
Principal designer: Masafumi Harada + Maiko Taniguchi
Building: O-Operates Co. Ltd.
Ground floor plan 
1st floor plan 
Second floor strategy 
Roof program Dezeen
