Urban Home Design - Yoyogi House by Frontofficetokyo

Urban Home Design – Yoyogi House by Frontofficetokyo

Yoyogi House is sample of urban home designed by Frontofficetokyo. Located in Tokyo’s older residential areas, Japan – defined by narrow streets whose character emerges more from the individual choices of the homeowners than from any comprehensive urban plan. More specific, the elongated and narrow plot (5.4m x 16m) is surrounded on all sides by houses built to the razor’s edge of their property lines and to the maximum height the local zoning laws allow. The result; a site flanked by tall blank walls on its two long sides, and facing directly onto a neighbour’s home to the South, with only a sliver of open sky available on the south-east corner.

This Urban Home Design is instead conceived around a constrained (and efficient) wedge of glass, creating a boundary for a simple circulation route that captures as much of the sky as possible. Intimate functions, including bath and bedroom sit on the ground floor, connected directly by a thin paper-walled tunnel that changes its character throughout the day. The “public” spaces are found on the second floor, cantilevered out over the parking area. They are connected with the entrance by a stairway that follows the slope of the garden to a room-like landing and large outdoor deck before continuing up along a gently sloping gallery space. Glass walls facing south and east define the stairway and living room, exploiting the limited access to natural light, and looking onto a sloping garden, a deck, and the neighbour(-hood) beyond. This Urban Home Design is closed on its remaining sides, but the circulation extends outwards into the length of site so the experience is one of openness rather than claustrophobia.

Surprisingly this Urban Home Design feels larger than its 80 sqm would suggest, due in no small part to the relatively long views outside. The garden supports this effect – treated not as an oasis, nor a place to go for tranquil zen-like escape, but as an active green space. Visible from the street, it is intended to be entered, walked through, sat upon and constantly changed through new plantings and the activities of daily life. This Urban Home Design is treated in much the same way, fitting into the context without attempting to alter it, mimic it, or deny it. The answer to how to live in the modern city for this house is simply to take it as it comes. Via.

Urban Home Design - Yoyogi House by Frontofficetokyo

Urban Home Design - Yoyogi House by Frontofficetokyo

Urban Home Design - Yoyogi House by Frontofficetokyo

Urban Home Design - Yoyogi House by Frontofficetokyo

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