KURO Building | KINO architects

The complex building on a shopping street of the Tokyo downtown area. This shopping street is losing once activity. The streetcar is running to this shopping street in parallel. In connection with the road of the side of a streetcar being widened, many buildings on this shopping street start to rebuild. This building is also one of them. The second floor is used as the house of a client, the first floor as noodle shop of a client, and the third and the fourth floor as the rental housing.

The client lives in this area from childhood. While needing a presence which is not buried under surroundings, too much conspicuousness is not desirable. We aim for the building which is moderately conspicuous, and can maintain the presence even if it passes through time.

Dynamic unevenness by the small eaves for a shade and a rain-cover. Detailed unevenness by the transferred texture of OSB plywood. Fine unevenness by the cement. The shade of the sunlight which changes every moment, falls and flows into these unevenness.

The black shade overlaps panels of a concrete which painted different black, and gives various expression to the building. The construction can get a peculiar expression under each condition every angle,time and distance.

It can also get the presence adapted oneself to the scenery of the disordered town, and not buried to the surroundings.