© Tomohiro Sakashita
Japanese practice Akihisa Hirata Architecture office looked to the neighborhood’s larger scale to design the concept for a Collective Housing in Tokyo. The project titled ’kotoriku’ is defined by the irregular roads creating different activity areas with varying qualities of space, light, and material.
Collective Housing in Tokyo Technical Information
- Architects: Akihisa Hirata | Works of Akihisa Hirata
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
- Scale: 3 Floors
- Topis: Tangling Architecture, Apartments
- Images: © Tomohiro Sakashita, © Akihisa Hirata architecture office
I want to create an architecture that is ecological in the purest sense of the word. ‘Tangling’ is the term I prefer for it.
– Akihisa Hirata
Collective Housing in Tokyo Photographs
© Tomohiro Sakashita
© Tomohiro Sakashita
© Tomohiro Sakashita
© Tomohiro Sakashita
© Tomohiro Sakashita
Collective Housing in Tokyo
By now, Akihisa Hirata’s work has been widely published overseas, and his clients are no longer limited to Japan. The architectural concepts of ‘fermented’ and ‘tangling’ architecture have been developed overseas. The architect revealed in his solo exhibition at the Architectural Foundation in London (2012) and Milan Design Week. Akishisa Hirata is one of the five Japanese Architects chosen to exhibit in the exhibition for the MoMa Museum, A Japanese Constellation.
The impetus for the design of the Tokyo collective house was the concept of irregular roads. The structure comprises crumbling concrete walls that encircle the site, while layers of radically different floor plans resembling Voronoi diagrams formulate the different living areas within.
The land level contains shared open public spaces where a central staircase can reach different units. Each apartment has its own exclusive floor plan, materials, and angles. Every space combines a mixture of texture, but they all have concrete walls. In a way, each floor is understood as a little city, with its own unique areas and relations with the outside world. Each space is unique in size, condition, and shape, which defines the apartment’s character.
Collective Housing in Tokyo Plans
Floor Plans
Section of the Apartments
Concept
Collective Housing in Tokyo Gallery
About Akihisa Hirata
Born in Osaka in 1971, he received in 1997 a master’s degree from the Kyoto University Graduate School of Engineering. After working at Toyo Ito & Associates, he established Akihisa Hirata architecture office in 2005. He is currently a specially appointed associate professor at Tohoku University and a part-time lecturer at Kyoto University and Tokyo University.
He has been awarded the 19th Japan Institute of Architects Newcomer Prize, second prize in the Kaoshiung Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center International Competition (2011), Elita Design Award (2012), Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale with Toyo Ito, Naoya Hatakeyama, Sou Fujimoto, Kumiko Inui (2012), first prize in the Kamaishi City Disaster Recovery Public Housing Proposal (2012) and first prize in the Ota City Library and Museum Proposal (2014).
