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Architects: EASTERN Design Office
- Area: 261 m²
- Year: 2011
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Photographs:Koichi Torimura
Text description provided by the architects. The site is located in a manufacturing area in Youkaichi City where there are many big factories in this town. In this residencial and industrial area, many immigrants from South America live here among the local people. It is also a popular drinking area where many bars and restaurants for such are scattered and there is a highway interchange near the town. The shape of the lot is a sharp triangle which is unusual for building a house.
The site is a wedge-shaped flatiron lot which resides at a corner where two streets merge at an acute angel. It was left behind neither used for residential nor for industrial development. Since no one wanted to buy it, and the public sector would not invest to change it into a park, the lot remained.
The elevation of this building takes the shape of the triangle plot. It is a triangular residential complex of 13 meters height with the base line 23m x height 12m x oblique line 26m. It is a typical tenanted apartment house with seven rooms, 1-3rd two units on each floor and one on the 4th floor. Each room is composed of a living room of 13 m2, two bed rooms with 13 m2 and 9m2, a prefabricated bathroom, a kitchen system and a toilet. Each space is planned to be easily rented by town people.
The concrete which serves as a structure is designed carefully. The exterior wall is made out of square cut stone, concrete and glass formed like scattered cards on it. They are bound by a “cross” so that the spread out material would not disjoin. It looks like a present, a toy box or a castle where the boys and girls of the story of Michael Ende could be entering. It is a triangular building configured by the square elements. The cross confines the power of the mixed materials into one.
Text provided by Eastern Design Office
