Eastern pleasure: in Tokyo, a shimmering white dwelling on the edge of the city's entertainment district appears to be an alien, elegant body dropped into a mire of mess and vice. (Art House).

The house, known as Natural Ellipse, was designed by Masaki Endoh and Masahiro Ikeda on a site at the edge of Shibuya, Tokyo's shopping and entertainment district. Surrounded by what the Japanese call 'love hotels', its design is imbued with a certain amount of humour and some drama. The building is vaguely phallic in shape; but faceted under a gleaming white skin, it looks as if it has simply alighted in an alien sea (the architect sees it as a single grain of rice which summons up a different kind of imagery). In fact it is firmly rooted, having a proper basement beneath four upper storeys.

The geometry of the house is based on that of an elliptical toroid. This has been pulled out into a tall cage that, pierced by a hollow funnel, flares into a trumpet as it rises. It contains a delicate spiralling stairway. The cage is made of horizontal and vertical steel ribs that are covered by a flexible insulated skin of reinforced fibre plastic with special fire-resistant properties. Internal materials and finishes are straightforward and austere: concrete slabs, simply painted, form the floors, ceilings are painted steel plate, and walls are of painted mineral board. The effect is rather that of a superior lighthouse.

In these surroundings, the house is introverted and from the street seems almost impermeable. Inhabitants are allowed glimpses of the exterior through the few openings cut in (apparently) random fashion into the building skin, though these have been carefully placed to frame particular views of neighbouring buildings. A secret terrace, open to the sky, is contained within (and concealed by) the convex walls of the deeply indented apex. Floored with glass, the terrace is also a skylight shedding luminance into the building and down the stairwell.

Inside, there are two apartments which can be made self-contained and are entered from the street on opposite sides of the building. Because of the geometry, space at each level is irregularly distributed; on one side are bigger volumes for living/sleeping quarters; on the other, are ancillary kitchens and bathrooms. Apartment I occupies the ground and first floors and has its own staircase. Apartment 2, the main one, revolves around the spiralling stairway which is the direct conduit -- like a private lift -- between a basement study, entrance and second floor living quarters.

Architect

Masaki Endoh+Masahiro Ikeda/Endoh Design House & MIAS

Photographs

Hiro Sakaguchi