just had an e-mail this morning letting us know we were selected as one of 6 finalists for the oslo arkitekturtriennale but didn’t win the top slot.

We submitted a proposal suggesting we deal with the city as a starting point for architecture, opening buildings up to the urban surroundings as though it were a real and legitimate landscape – with all kinds of opportunities to be taken advantage of beyond the standard argument for proximity to an interesting night life.  Currently, at least in our eyes, the standard approach is to hide away from the city in oslo as much as in tokyo.  There are of course reasons for that distancing but it is not always required, and as we step ever deeper into this urban world it feels like we are missing opportunities.

It would have been great fun to try and take that idea and make it into a real project if we had won.  It is nice enough in the meantime to be included in the publication for the event.

we went to the shop of the construction company we are using for this house today to take a look at one of the final outstanding items, namely a pair of storage boxes to be placed on the roof. There are a few details left to be sorted but what we were interested in checking was the metal finish.

We designed them as opposing triangles so they could be stored together to form a compact box or taken apart to make a long counter for a barbeque.  Or if things are feeling a bit crowded they can be placed at far ends of the roof if the owners desire.

Because they are going to be on the roof (as storage sheds for gardening tools and so on) we wanted them to be finished with a durable material that was not too expensive.  After pricing out several options (including fibreglass and stainless steel) we settled on a galvanized steel siding, finished with a white paint.  While the boxes themselves were easy to make it seems the metal covering was more difficult than expected, and it took several days to finish covering instead of the allotted time of a single day.  The craftsman did a pretty good job however and we appreciate that he took the time to work out the details.  With the metal siding going over the doors as well as the sides it was definitely not an easy job.

There are a few moments in life that really are only to be remembered like a lucid dream, surreal things happening in the light of day.

ok, maybe this is not one of them, but it is unexpected.

Last week Koen was walking through a bookstore in Holland and saw a book called starchitects and thought ‘who would buy this book? ‘ (not that he/we have anything against star architects mind you, its just that the word has become a bit of an epithet since the bubble burst). Feeling a bit like a voyeur leafing through a catalogue of vanity licence plates he skimmed through the book anyway, only to find we were somehow included in the list of worthies.  We aren’t quite sure how this happened but its a perfect joke.  There we are nestled between Herman Hertzberger and Norman Foster, major architects with a serious history behind them, in a  big fat coffee-table book.  Not that we aren’t happy to be included but it is definitely surreal to find out about it the way we did.  What are the chances…random bookstore, random book, and there we are on pages 340 through 344.  If Koen had blinked while skimming the pages we would never have know about it at all.

Too rich an opportunity to pass up, Koen bought two copies.

The house is essentially complete now and we are going through the final snagging.

The last few posts showed some of the landscaping elements, which I think make the house work much better than the typical “architecture as object” kind of project.  It is worth showing how the ideas all came out I think, so…

laying out the  path leading from road to front door

laying stone path

from above

view to front door

the path is in a way a kind of visual pun, forming a literal pointer to the door, but is more properly a marker that helps to soften the landscape that is after all designed for the convenience of the cars.  Without it perhaps the feeling would be that this landscape is not for people, when in fact it is intended to be a place for kids to run around in, a place to wash dogs, perhaps even a place to play a game of 1 on 1 (i can say this because the owners have a suitably portable net), and for parties there is room enough for 5 cars to park.  Such things in the very heart of Tokyo in general are not possible once a house is built.  Room for one car, perhaps two and nothing more is by far the standard.  It is no wonder most Tokyo-ites prefer to spend their days away from home.

The roof decks so far are better than we hoped.  Usually with landscapes it takes at least a few months and even a year or two before the design is properly realised, but in this case things are already looking pretty good.

deck 1 and deck 2 on the third floor

side deck on the third floor (the railing will be painted the same color as the column in the front yard)

ditto (yes that’s me laying the sod)looking to the north and west decks from the kitchen

At some point I imagine the grass will be replaced with flowers and other plants, but even in this most basic state it is a fantastic space.  The roof deck is even better.  We were able to modify the roofing system from Tajima to create a seamless transition from wood deck to concrete tile to grass.  Usually there is a gap or a drop between the materials but with some time spent we were able to make it all work out to good effect.

roof deck looking west

roof deck looking east

The Wassily chair (in the above picture) is not actually part of the design, but we had the photographer in a few days ago and decided to play around with some objects to fill the spaces.  This was just lying around the office so we took it up.  Not quite as comfy as a sun chair, but relaxing just the same.

Daisuke Akita

The photographer is a very kind fellow named Daisuke Akita, who does fashion photography as well as shoot buildings.  He took a few shots for us before the owners moved in and will take some more later in the month including, hopefully, a shot or two from up high to really get a clear view of the roof design.  The roof is,  truth be told, the most open facade of the entire building.  The 4 walls are difficult to photograph because of the tightness of the site and the fact that we built rather close to the edge of the property.  To us it is kind of cool to see the house get lost in the city that way, but it certainly makes it a challenge to get a clear shot as a photographer.

I will post some of Daisuke’s images once they are ready.  In the meantime, barring a few final thoughts and cetera very likely I will be using this space to write about other stuff going on in Japan.  Do stay tuned!

When I was a young student, just starting to learn about architecture I am quite certain I had a lot of mistaken ideas about what architecture could be and what it was for.  Over time experience has given me a better understanding.  Learning to understand the role of landscape however was a much more difficult process.  Not because it is that much harder to learn about, only that in most architecture offices (or at least the ones that i worked at) landscape was reduced to the bit of land left over after the building has been put up.  That was certainly the approach of my first office here in Japan, which might be surprising considering the mythical connection with nature that Japanese culture is supposed to give its citizens.

My university in Canada tried to teach me better, but it was moving to Tokyo that  was the real cure.  Dealing with the intense urban landscape forced us to be very careful with how we treat the ground and the way we manage the landscape spaces in our projects. Of course it also helps that Koen was taught architecture by one of the best landscape architects in the world, Adriaan Geuze.

In the Yoyogi house the landscape is as important as the building.  This project is no different.  The decks on the upper levels are what make the house a special place.  But what of the ground floor?  In previous posts I have talked about how dark it will be on the ground floor, and how much of the space available will be needed for cars to turn around.  That is true, but does not mean the ground floor needs to look like a parking lot, nor that the entrance to the home needs to look anything less than inviting.

Our solution to the ground floor landscape design is to create a hard surface landscape.  This is partly to keep costs down, but also to enhance the impression of a large open space.  The site is about 140m2, but the first floor only takes up about 40m2, and so we wanted to show off as much of the remaining 100m2 leftover.

Space in this city is luxury, and being able to feel that kind of open-ness is not common at all.

first sketch plan for site

preparing the site to pour concrete on ground floor

preparing the site to pour concrete

The base and the grade beam that tie the angled steel column to the house will be made into a small hill

laying out formwork to accommodate the curving entrance path

pump truck ready 
to pour concrete deep into the site.  It is always amazing that the crew are able to get these large vehicles right up to the site without damaging the tress on the street

waiting for the concrete truck to arrive

concrete is poured

spaces for cars are marked with circular stamps in the concrete

next is the path leading from the street to the house, to be filled with stones.

I love the crate the stones came in.  Usually construction materials come in neat hygienic boxes, like french fries shipped to a mcdonalds, but not these.  These are robust!

The final image is intended to be something like this.  We should see in the next few days how close we can get.