RENZANKYO | LOVE Architecture

This is a project aimed at profitability, serving as a residential complex. The site at the dead end of an alleyway, facing the southwest corner adjacent to an outdoor pool of a neighboring elementary school and surrounded by the exposed piping of neighboring homes on the rear and sides, exuded a sense of enclosure. Therefore, it was decided to arrange the planned building in a Ushaped layout along the perimeter of the site, leaving only a minimal 2-meter length along the road line to shield these views. The outer perimeter of the building barely meets the width of 50cm required for evacuation routes in accordance with the Tokyo Safety Regulations, so legal daylighting cannot be expected. To avoid direct views between rooms through windows while ensuring legal daylighting opportunities, the interior perimeter of the building is staggered to maximize length, thereby connecting it to the sole open space at the southwest corner. As a result, even the internal pathways within the site, which are in reverse relation to the building, also extend towards the open space at the southwest corner while staggering. The width of these pathways ensures compliance with the Tokyo Safety Regulations, with the remainder used for eaves and gardens. As the planned building is located in Residential Area, it is subject to the strictest shadow regulations. As a result of ensuring daylighting and privacy, the derived complex floor plan resembles a composite building, where every part of the building contributes to creating shadows, which is disadvantageous for shadow regulations. Therefore, the roof on the west side, crucial for daylighting and views, is lowered into a valley shape, while other parts of the roof undergo subtle height adjustments to minimize composite shadows. As a result, the building's volume takes the form of a series of gabled roofs with various heights and slopes, staggered in shape.

・Matching Volume and Layout To maximize the effective living area of each room, the number of rooms located on the third floor is minimized to reduce the number of stairs, following the principle of flat-type rooms, and indoor staircases are laid out to overlap as much as possible vertically. Two of these staircases are external, ensuring the provision of internal pathways while not counting towards building coverage and volume ratios. The external staircases are positioned at the tips of each gabled roof, while the internal staircases follow their gradients. Any areas where room height cannot be guaranteed are designated as balconies or closets. Each room, facing the internal pathways for good daylighting and views, becomes a livingdining- kitchen space.

・Designing a Vivid and Experienced World The design doesn't stop here. If the above represents a design of the objective external world based on mathematical or physical descriptions, detached from human perception and bodily senses, then it must evolve into a phenomenological design where individuals vividly experience the world through perception and bodily senses. For residents, an apartment building is experienced as a nested structure consisting of individual private rooms and shared external spaces. The details of RENZANKYO are designed to create a phenomenological dynamism, akin to the relationship between a tea room and its surrounding garden, where the latter serves as a buffer, a passage, and an object of appreciation for the former within the urban setting. The sense of enclosure at the end of the vacant alleyway in the midst of the urban hustle and bustle is literally transformed into a "mountain villa" within the city.

・Details as Additional scenery Standing in the internal pathways of the site, the buildings, with gabled roofs, resemble a series of mountains. The exterior walls are clad in dark-colored charred cedar to evoke the silhouette of mountains against the evening sky. When standing amidst the mountains, the internal pathways of the site seem like the garden a japanese tearoom. With a sandy soil pavement and planted with mountain trees and wildflowers, one can enjoy glimpses of the surroundings while accessing each room via stepping stones or jumping stones. Inside the rooms, the view through the windows reveals a landscape of mountain trees and borrowed scenery of the garden outside a japanese tearoom. Bamboo lattices are installed to conceal aluminum sliding doors facing the internal pathways, while hanging shoji screens are placed on windows facing neighboring properties, providing shade to the room while shielding from noise. Interior partitions are made of earthen walls, with one side protruding to resemble angled corner windows. Traditional paper lanterns hang from the ceiling of the top-floor room, creating an appearance akin to exterior garden lanterns.