Japanese architect Hiroshi Nakamura utilized hexagons to make the layout of this Tokyo house and workplace for a car dealer, although triangular arches create warren-like interiors .
Nakamura and his Tokyo studio NAP designed the live-perform building for the Setagaya ward of Tokyo. One particular floor contains the client’s household residence, while the other accommodates his showroom and office.
“The client sought a big room for displaying autos downstairs and a comparable huge room for collective household living upstairs,” explained Nakamura, who worked in Kengo Kuma’s office before setting up his studio in 2002.
Constructed from reinforced concrete, the developing comprises two open-plan floors. The two of these spaces are divided up by triangular-arched openings, generating a honeycomb-like network of six-sided spaces.
This arrangement pleased the client’s require for a large, flexible space for the enterprise, but also created domestic-scale living areas.
“If only huge, the spaces would not be suitably comfy,” mentioned the architect. “So we therefore clustered private spaces – the optimal size for a vehicle on the initial floor and for a sofa or table on the 2nd floor — and made two big personalised nevertheless integral spaces.”
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“We chose a hexagon for the shape of the rooms,” he additional. “By sharing party walls, the hexagonal rooms enhance the building’s strength and boost its financial efficiency.”
In the showroom, named Graz, these hexagonal segments give parking bays for cars that differ from convertibles to 4-by-fours. There is also a consumer lounge and a meeting room.
Tiny pebbles set into the concrete walls of the showroom generate texture. The architect paired the two components collectively to combine both the challenging lines of a common car showroom with the a lot more tactile setting of a home.
“The typical vehicle showroom employs smooth stone or metal panels in in search of a harmony with the vehicles,” said Nakamura.
“This kind of an method, even so, detracted from the comfort of the room. If an earthen or wood finish have been employed, on the other hand, the harmony with the metal and glass auto entire body would be lost.”
“We found we could harmonise the architectural space with the metallic vehicle by minutely adjusting the visual hardness of the supplies employed,” he continued. “Mixing in Sakura River pebbles, we obtained an intermediate half-stone, half-earth finish.”
In addition to the huge inner openings, expanses of glazing about the perimeter of the area offers views out to the surrounding gardens.
Both internal and external openings also align to create a lane down the centre of every single floor. At ground level this provides an accessibility route for cars, even though on the upper floor it forms a corridor linking the family’s living spaces.
A flight of external stairs supplies direct accessibility to the family members house. Here, the hexagonal spaces define the boundaries of a kitchen, lounge, dining area and research, as properly as the timber-lined lobby.
Distinct components have been utilised to help give each and every area its personal character red brick lines the walls of the lounge, whilst intricately patterned blue and white tiles cover the bathroom and its adjoining terrace.
On each floors, timber floorboards are made from the wood of Asian quince trees.
Backyard terraces set at the outer edge of each of the principal living spaces provide a buffer from the noise of the adjacent street, as well as providing normal light and ventilation.
Nakamura finished Graz in 2012. More latest tasks by his studio include Ribbon Chapel, a wedding venue wrapped by a pair of spiralling staircases, and Nasu Tepee, a woodland retreat resembling a group of tents.
Photography is by Koji Fujii/Nacasa and Partners.
Task credits:
Architecture: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP
Construction design: Yasushi Moribe
Lighting: Shinji Yamaguchi/On & Off
Pendant Light: Yudai Tachikawa/t.c.k.w
Books and accessories selection: Toshie Tanaka
Ground floor program 
Initial floor strategy 
Segment Dezeen
