Divided views: when is a room not a room? The Jury is still out ...T house--by Sou Fujimoto--was a highly contested choice. The house, which is essentially a single volume space, provides accommodation for a family of four and also serves as a space within which to display the owner's private collection of contemporary art. Some Jury members thought this was a completely unworkable space to inhabit in·hab·it v. in·hab·it·ed, in·hab·it·ing, in·hab·its v.tr. 1. To live or reside in. 2. To be present in; fill: Old childhood memories inhabit the attic. , with the building's contorted con·tort·ed adj. 1. Twisted or strained out of shape. 2. Botany Twisted, bent, or partially rolled upon itself; convolute. con·tort spaces providing little flexibility. Assuming that the client was party to the design process, however, raises an equally pertinent counter-assumption that the space is exactly what they wanted; a unique, bespoke be·spoke v. Past tense and a past participle of bespeak. adj. 1. Custom-made. Said especially of clothes. 2. Making or selling custom-made clothes: a bespoke tailor. , albeit unorthodox series of tailor-made spaces. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Recalling primitive housing models that arranged private areas around a central core, this home's eight principal rooms are ordered in a radial manner. Rather than being organised around a centralised Adj. 1. centralised - drawn toward a center or brought under the control of a central authority; "centralized control of emergency relief efforts"; "centralized government" centralized hall, however, each space is a sub-division of the single volume, with no spatial hierarchy. Held between a single unified floor and ceiling, rooms are defined by lightweight timber walls simply made from 12mm thick plywood plywood, manufactured board composed of an odd number of thin sheets of wood glued together under pressure with grains of the successive layers at right angles. Laminated wood differs from plywood in that the grains of its sheets are parallel. fixed to 45X45mm vertical studs. Each partition has an unfinished face, articulated by the exposed studs, and a smooth painted face, allowing the architects to set up an alternating arrangement of wooden or white rooms. R.G. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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