* Residential Architecture: Tokyo Balconies by KINO Architects

Residential Architecture: Tokyo Balconies by KINO Architects: “..In Tokyo, Japan, where building density is high both the “Geographical map”, defining the undulating land, and “Town planning and zoning regulations” have a large influence on construction. This house is on a site where the features of these two geographical maps come together successfully..This site is off a busy shopping street in the middle of Tokyo. The southern part of the site belongs to a “commerce” zone, and the northern part to a “1st priority residential” zone. To the north of the site the residential zone continues. These two different zones have different regulations in regard to the height of buildings. The design proposes to make the best use of building on the boundary of two zones. The design included four floors with a large balcony to the north on the top floor. This balcony could also take advantage of the geography to the north giving an outstanding view of the skyscrapers of Shinjuku..The balcony feature from the top floor is repeated on each floor; internal space is enhanced with outside balcony space. It is too difficult to provide a garden in the super-high density Tokyo environment; also balconies are not included in the calculation of building volume. Therefore many balconies were used to produce an urban garden..The balconies have two additional roles: to communicate with the surroundings and to obstruct a direct view from the road. The balconies gradually connect the inside and outside..”  Interesting form, conception, details; extensive glazing, natural light, views..

See our post on another home by KINO Architects: Residential Architecture: Himeji Observatory House by KINO Architects.

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image: © Daici Ano; article: “Tokyo Balconies / KINO Architects” 10 Jan 2013. ArchDaily. http://www.archdaily.com/316426>

* Residential Architecture: Optical Glass House by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP

Residential Architecture: Optical Glass House by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP: “..Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP have designed the Optical Glass House in Hiroshima, Japan..This house is sited among tall buildings in downtown Hiroshima, overlooking a street with many passing cars and trams. To obtain privacy and tranquility in these surroundings, we placed a garden and optical glass façade on the street side of the house. The (interior) garden is visible from all rooms, and the serene soundless scenery of the passing cars and trams imparts richness to life in the house. Sunlight from the east, refracting through the glass, creates beautiful light patterns. Rain striking the water-basin skylight manifests water patterns on the entrance floor. Filtered light through the garden trees flickers on the living room floor, and a super lightweight curtain of sputter-coated metal dances in the wind. Although located downtown in a city, the house enables residents to enjoy the changing light and city moods, as the day passes, and live in awareness of the changing seasons..Optical Glass Façade: A façade of some 6,000 pure-glass blocks (50mm x 235mm x 50mm) was employed. The pure-glass blocks, with their large mass-per-unit area, effectively shut out sound and enable the creation of an open, clearly articulated garden that admits the city scenery. To realize such a façade, glass casting was employed to produce glass of extremely high transparency from borosilicate, the raw material for optical glass. The casting process was exceedingly difficult, for it required both slow cooling to remove residual stress from within the glass, and high dimensional accuracy. Even then, however, the glass retained micro-level surface asperities, but we actively welcomed this effect, for it would produce unexpected optical illusions in the interior space..Waterfall: So large was the 8.6m x 8.6m façade, it could not stand independently if constructed by laying rows of glass blocks a mere 50mm deep. We therefore punctured the glass blocks with holes and strung them on 75 stainless steel bolts suspended from the beam above the façade. Such a structure would be vulnerable to lateral stress, however, so along with the glass blocks, we also strung on stainless steel flat bars (40mm x 4mm) at 10 centimeter intervals. The flat bar is seated within the 50mm-thick glass block to render it invisible, and thus a uniform 6mm sealing joint between the glass blocks was achieved. The result?—a transparent façade when seen from either the garden or the street. The façade appears like a waterfall flowing downward, scattering light and filling the air with freshness..The glass block façade weighs around 13 tons. The supporting beam, if constructed of concrete, would therefore be of massive size. Employing steel frame reinforced concrete, we pre-tensioned the steel beam and gave it an upward camber. Then, after giving it the load of the façade, we cast concrete around the beam and, in this way, minimized its size..”  Extraordinary.  Extensive glazing, filtered natural light and views; interesting interior volumes, details, light sensibility and materiality..

image: Nacasa & Partners; article: Contemporist

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* Residential Architecture: Bunker House by VaSLab Architecture

Residential Architecture: Bunker House by VaSLab Architecture: “..Bunker house (Tiensuwan House) is designed by VaSLab Architecture; its principals are Vasu Virajsilp and Boonlert Deeyuen. Project architect is Ratthaphon Sujatanonda..The house is located in A. Muang, Lopburi, Thailand..One of Lopburi’s landmark architecture is Pasak Cholasit Dam, the biggest reservoir in Central Thailand, a major source of water for household, agriculture and industrial use in Lop Buri and Saraburi Provinces. The fact that the house owner and the architects both like concrete, the dam’s profound structure and exposed concrete appearance influence the house owner and the architects to select cast-in-place concrete to be the house’s shell..Siriwan Tiensuwan, the house owner asks the architects to design a 250 sqm. house that has two contradicted characters; hidden + secured and visible + opened. The site is surrounded by its neighbored houses, only the front (west) side that opens to roadway, green area and a canal. Its site context recalls the architects of bunker architecture built during World War II and “Bunker Archeology”, Princeton Architectural Press, a book by Paul Virilio, urban planner, theorist, and philosopher. The architects are inspired by this elaborate defense system abandoned along the coast of France but yet charming and sophisticated. Its hidden and placid presence marked with the ability of watching out on guard, thus become the house’s metaphorical concept..The clients’ fondness of exposed concrete also strengthens their lifestyle of privacy, security, and strong protection. The asymmetrical ‘ H ’ shape floor plan creates two inner courts usable as outdoor living in morning and afternoon. These two courts separated by the corridor that links the main living space and guest room. More evidence of bunker design is seen in detail design at the slot opening of the master bedroom’s inner balcony that can be looked through the outside green, canal, and highway accordingly..”  Extensive glazing, natural light; internal courtyards; interesting details and interior volumes..

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image: © Spaceshift Studio; article: “Bunker House / VaSLab Architecture” 02 Nov 2010. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/85665&gt;

* Residential Architecture: S11 House by ArchiCentre

Residential Architecture: S11 House by ArchiCentre: “..The S11 house is located in an established older suburb of Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. The existing old house on the site was built in the early 1960’s and had become dilapidated and run-down over the years. A new green tropical house was planned for the site and conceptualized along the lines of a tree. The large tree canopy would cover and shelter the living spaces underneath it. The S11 House was designed to achieve the highest level Platinum rating of Malaysia’s Green Building Index (GBI)..There were five significant existing trees on the site. Three very old and sculptural frangipanis, a large star-fruit and a coconut palm tree. All these were retained and the new house was set in the midst of them. Much of the demolished old house materials were re-used. Old crushed concrete roof tiles for gravel fill, old clay bricks were cleaned and re-used for feature walls, roofing timbers were used for formwork strutting and propping, old steel were all sold off to steel yards, crushed concrete and cement aprons were re-used for backfilling aggregate..The S11 house has a clear north-south orientation for all its openings and windows. The east and west walls were deliberately void of any significant glazed openings and were constructed of better insulated aerated light weight concrete blocks. In addition they were coated in heat reflecting paint in camouflage motif and also shaded by a wire netting screen wall of fruit and vegetable climbers. These would help to reduce much of the heat gain through the east and west walls. The large tree-like canopy roof is constructed of lightweight recyclable profiled steel metal sheets coated in a light off-white colour to minimize heat absorption..The roof insulation comprises 200mm thick 50kg/m3 rockwool and two layers of heat reflective foil. A 200mm thick ventilated air space is left between the metal ceiling lining and the rockwool to further improve heat insulation. The overall roof U value is an impressive 0.14. The glazing comprises 9.38mm thick low-E safety laminated glass with a 90% openable area. The overall building envelope OTTV is 29.63..A specially designed wind turbine combined with a steel framed glazed pyramid provides the house with “stack effect” ventilation and light pipes. These 15 numbers of turbines are driven both by wind as well as convection when the air within the glass pyramids heat up as a result of the greenhouse effect. A 3 degree differential is enough to spin the turbines by convection. The large canopy roof is pitched at 5 degrees to facilitate self cleaning of roofing material and solar panels. A 5 KW peak photovoltaic installation is mounted unto the large canopy roof and the generated electricity is sold back into the national electric grid. The solar hot water heaters are also located on the large roof area..Rainwater collected on the canopy roof drains directly into the series of rainwater harvesting tanks. These are aligned in series for sedimentation control and the water from the last tank is used for all the toilet flushing, gardening and car washing requirements. All the tap fittings and sanitary wares have water saving and reduction valves..The majority of the house has bare natural finishes – raw off-form concrete walls and ceilings, cement plastered walls without paint and natural fair-faced common red clay brickwork. Stonework for bathrooms, driveway and Ground Floor living areas all come from project rejects. The timber flooring and upper decks are all Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified whilst the ground floor decking timbers are old recycled chengal collected over many years. Limited surfaces are painted with Low VOC paints. All internal joinery work has low VOC content and also water based glues. The 1m X 1m modular book shelves are all made from recycled waste plywood off-cuts with low VOC coatings and water based glues. The modules are stackable and can be relocated with ease in the boot of a car..The double volume Family room is located on the first floor and the 7m high full sliding glass walls facilitate maximum cross ventilation whilst also opening up the entire internal living space unto the outdoor deck. Lighting for the house are predominantly energy saving T5 tubes, LEDs and compact fluorescents. The house has full home office capability with Cat5 fibre-optics and broadband connections. The swimming pool and koi pond are located at the two extreme north-south ends and provide evaporative cooling for the house. Blackwater is treated in the onsite sewerage treatment plant and the recycled water is used for garden irrigation. A composting yard treats all the household organic and garden wastes and provides high grade compost fertilizer for the vegetable and fruit gardens. All new trees and plants are tropical natives that are generally maintenance free and suitable for the Malaysian climate..”  Extensive glazing, natural light, ventilation; interesting materiality, details, interior volumes and contextual sensibility; extensive green design inspiration, conception and details..

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image: © Lin Ho;article: “S11 House / ArchiCentre” 02 Jan 2013. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/313041&gt;