Strip tease: Masaki Endoh and Masahiro Ikeda's latest house in downtown Tokyo confidently bares all.The work of Masaki Endoh and Masahiro Ikeda--as with many other contemporary Japanese architects--derives significance from exploring the physical and metaphysical nature of walls. At the critical point where matter really matters, controlling the material boundary between internal and external spaces is one of architecture's most compelling pursuits. Interest lies not so much in the technology deployed, the nuts or the bolts (which will always remain key considerations), but more in how materials moderate light, regulate the environment, and how solid, void and niche can bring order to the ritual of everyday life. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In impressive projects on awkward urban sites, Endoh and Ikeda have designed and built a number of homes with unique and distinctive material qualities. In Natural Ellipse ellipse, closed plane curve consisting of all points for which the sum of the distances between a point on the curve and two fixed points (foci) is the same. It is the conic section formed by a plane cutting all the elements of the cone in the same nappe. , for example (AR April 2003) private space was cocooned within a seamless shell. While, with both Natural Illuminance illuminance: see photometry. Illuminance A term expressing the density of luminous flux incident on a surface. This word has been proposed by the Colorimetry Committee of the Optical Society of America to replace the term illumination. (1999) and Natural Slats (2000-2001), more direct explorations with modulation and composition brought new boundary opportunities. In their latest project, this enquiry continues with the creation of a home and shop, designed for a married couple who were looking to dramatically redefine their life as they entered retirement; adopting new rituals, it could be said, that would require new spaces. The house, called Natural Strips (the Japanese have a tendency to serialise (programming) serialise - To represent an arbitrarily complex data structure in a location-independent way so that it can be communicated or stored elsewhere. For example, an object representing a time, with attributes for year, month, timezone, etc. their projects with related working titles), is simple--spatially, compositionally and structurally--with three concrete slabs, three principal columns and three fully glazed glaze n. 1. A thin smooth shiny coating. 2. A thin glassy coating of ice. 3. a. A coating of colored, opaque, or transparent material applied to ceramics before firing. b. elevations. With an efficient service core at the rear, containing kitchen, lavatory and storage units, both the shop--which occupies the sunken sunk·en v. Obsolete A past participle of sink. adj. 1. Depressed, fallen in, or hollowed: sunken cheeks. 2. ground floor--and the two domestic floors above remain almost entirely open plan, exploiting as much of the modest 85sqm floor area as possible. A single-flight stair to one side links all levels, with the shop and home sharing a half landing through a connecting door, and an attic level 'store room' doubles as a curious penthouse sleeping cell for guests. Within this arrangement internal space is further moderated by two devices; the prominent and static twin-plate column, and a series of retractable re·tract v. re·tract·ed, re·tract·ing, re·tracts v.tr. 1. To take back; disavow: refused to retract the statement. 2. translucent polycarbonate A category of plastic materials used to make a myriad of products, including CDs and CD-ROMs. screens. With two of the three principal columns concealed behind the service wall, the paired plates that form the third structural support not only articulate the shop, living room and bedroom, but also define space for dressing and bathing. Curved, skewed skewed curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean. skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data , and rolled from 18mm plate steel, the twisted silhouette also articulates the elevation's grid when seen by passing observers. That is, when the polycarbonate screens are stowed in one of two cupboards to give uninterrupted views. When privacy or shelter are required, the entire envelope changes state, as a series of top hung feather-light screens form an inner skin, each simply constrained by its neighbour by small surface magnets. Simple to use and easy to manoeuvre, the cellular sheets, manufactured from recycled plastic, give the spaces a theatrically teasing, now-you-see-it now-you-don't double life, not only orchestrating the relationship between inside and out, but also the relationship between circulation and accommodation by concealing or revealing the narrow steel stair. The screens also act as an insulation layer, forming a curtain which collects and ventilates warm air in a perimeter buffer cavity, albeit with a degree of leakage. Externally the elevation is divided horizontally by a vertical array of galvanised steel shading blades that form an integral part of the cladding The plastic or glass sheath that is fused to and surrounds the core of an optical fiber. The cladding's mirror-like coating keeps the light waves reflected inside the core. The cladding is covered with a protective outer jacket. See fiber optics glossary. system. Stiffened by being bent into a channel section, the blades accommodate the glazing that sits between each blade, each glass strip being subtly inclined as ascending panes are overlapped and sealed with a simple bead; a highly inventive, yet deceptively de·cep·tive·ly adv. In a deceptive or deceiving manner; so as to deceive. Usage Note: When deceptively is used to modify an adjective, the meaning is often unclear. simple integrated solution, bolted to vertical 36mm square hollow sections that span between concrete slabs. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The house has a tectonic tectonic /tec·ton·ic/ (tek-ton´ik) pertaining to construction. simplicity and an ephemeral Temporary. Fleeting. Transitory. beauty, being as light in its mass as it is in ambience. Its kit-like physical lightness of touch suitably expresses the building's temporary nature, dictated by future highway proposals that limit its planning consent to a ten-year period. As a result of this condition, construction costs were kept deliberately low, amounting to less than 30 per cent of the overall costs, the assumption being (one would hope) that the relatively high land value will be recouped by the client when highway plans are initiated. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion