The ‘house for a young couple’ in Tokyo, designed by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami contains a small garden within its cuboid envelope, blurring boundaries between interior and exterior.
House for a Young Couple Technical Information
- Architects: Junya Ishigami + Associates | Biography & Bibliography
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
- Typology: Residential Architecture / House
- Project year: 2013
- Photographs: © Junya Ishigami + Associates
The objective is to create a new type of hybrid space that could not have been conceived either by contemporary architecture or classical architecture alone.
– Junya Ishigami
House for a young couple in Tokyo Photographs
House for a Young Couple in Tokyo
In a suburb of Tokyo where architecture is seen as “a landscape comprised of a repetition of nothing but ready-built houses that continue endlessly,” this house inverts the outside world onto the building’s interior, inserting a microcosm of nature into the deeply artificial environment of the city.
The exterior has a cuboid geometry with linear rows of glazing, revealing glimpses of the unusual residential arrangement. The facade is understated to the point of anonymity and is treated as an exercise of abstract compositional work. Its minimal ornamentation is divided by contrasting open and closed panels almost perfectly camouflaged into its mundane urban surroundings.
However, on the interior, a miniature forest grows in the dwelling corner, developing an organic playground for its inhabitants. The double-height volume carefully manipulates regular, everyday experiences. A curving line of soil makes its mark on the living room floor as if quietly invading the human-made structure.
House for a young couple in Tokyo Plans
About Junya Ishigami
Junya Ishigami is a Japanese architect born in Kanagawa prefecture in 1974. He is one of the innovative voices in contemporary design. Formerly of the architecture firm SANAA, Ishigami established his practice in 2004.
He acquired his master’s degree in architecture and planning at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 2000. Ishigami worked with Kazuyo Sejima from 2000 to 2004 at SANAA before establishing his firm in 2004: Junya.ishigami+associates.
Full Biography | Works from Junya Ishigami
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which material is the facade of the cube? need it for study, would be nice!!