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Architects: Terada Hirate Sekkei
- Area: 177 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Ben Richards
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Lead Architects: Naoki Terada, Kenichi Hirate
Text description provided by the architects. The text will be published as received. Please double check the credits and spelling! Located within a quiet residential area near the Takaido Station in Tokyo is a black building nestled above a concrete platform. This building is in fact a house designed to accommodate a family of five (mother and father, their parents and their daughter). Just off the main road and through its main entrance are several steps which guides you down, with a diagonal wall to your left which would appear to penetrate the entire building upwards and through to the roof at the top.
A black staircase which extends towards the second floor is fashioned with same material used over the external walls and to its left, is an angled large yellow sliding door with a passageway in alignment to the diagonal wall. Beyond this yellow door are the living and dining quarters, with a bedroom and open study areas on the ground floor.
The illuminated black staircase leads you to the 2nd floor where, a red door opens through to a bathroom that is entirely covered with white 100mm squared tiles and the diagonal wall is present throughout this space. With a generous ceiling height up to 6.8m, the open living and dining quarters with kitchen features furniture from the ‘50s and ‘60s era. As well as custom designed sofas and lighting, the stainless-steel kitchen is also made to an original custom design. The living-dining area is also connected to a terrace through a 3.6m-wide sliding glass door, extending the internal space to the open outdoors.
Ascending the spiral staircase in this living-dining space leads you further to the 3rd floor of the house. Here, and overlooking the second level stands an iconic red ‘living tower’ sofa amidst a background of yellow which, further expands this living area for the whole family. The ‘living tower’ also serves as seating for viewings of projected images on the wall. Furthermore, two bedrooms are placed on this level. The first, a children's bedroom with a loft which is connected to the living/dining space below (through a peephole), then the master bedroom synthesized in a deep blue with custom-made curtains and bedspreads.
