HOUSE IN A PLUM GROVE


This is an incredible small house designed by sanaa, absolutly strange.
A four-story residence for a young couple and their small child on a cramped site in the heart of downtown Tokyo. The clients required a terrace, a living and dining area, a bedroom, and a spare room. In this project, Sejima wanted "to find what could be gained from the small size itself." A floor was dedicated to each required function, and each was designed independently based on programmatic needs, proximity of nearby buildings, and views. The resulting profile is taught, elegant, and somewhat irregular. The building form expands and sways up from a small footprint and then returns almost to footprint size as it tapers to a roof terrace.

Sejima decided to divide the space into smaller compartments. Traditional Japanese architecture, Sejima explained, tends to apportion one room to each inhabitant. However, she revised this in favor of four small bedrooms and four living spaces, articulated by extremely thin (16mm) steel plate walls with windowless square openings to connect the rooms visually. The effect of the openings in these thin walls is that "the next room appears like a picture."


http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9637/ks8ev9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/3075/ks6sp0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/8350/ks7dq3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

.................

that bed looks really cosy. i want one!