Warehouse in Aego

Jordi Costa — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 17:48:15 +0000

Architects: Arii Irie Architects Photography: Kai Nakamura Construction Period: 2019 Location: Ageo, Japan

Located in a suburban context along a highway connecting Tokyo and Gunma, the project is a warehouse/office for a trading company that deals with machinery parts. A simple timber construction gable shaped roof with a cantilevering truss for the platform was chosen as a logical and economical solution for the organization of space.

The warehouse is positioned on the first floor with adequate floor height in the front for forklifts, and the office is placed in the rear of the second floor for protection from the roadway noise. Free standing columns divide the plan into two, with knee braces symmetrical to the gable segmenting the beams into standard lumber lengths. The diamond shaped space created by the knee brace is utilized as an environmental filter for the building.

Natural light penetrates above through the full length skylight while a tent suspended below diffuses the light and reflects it to the ceiling. The heat of the sunlight is sent to the floor by pair of air ducts in the winter and exhausted by fans on the gable end in the summer. The diamond shaped void hovers above the warehouse and office, seemingly as an autonomous space by its strong geometry, while providing a sense of comfort for the workers.

Text provided by the architect.

La entrada Warehouse in Aego se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Koya No Sumika

Jordi Costa — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 06:30:35 +0000

Architects: mA-style Photography: Kai Nakamura Construction Period: 2013 Location: Shizuoka, Japan

This is an extension plan for a young couple’s house next to the main house. The main house is a one story Japanese style house with about 200m2, which is commonly seen in rural areas. It is a big house with many rooms and mainly consists of large spaces for people to gather and to provide hospitality. However, the young couple desired feelings of ease and spaces that ensure quiet and comfortable times. A simple extension may enable each of the house’s residents to live completely separated, but the relationship between the families and the connection with the main house might be lost. Therefore, by utilizing the functions for living in the main house, the extension is designed as a minimum living space, and pursues both maintaining distance and retaining fertile relationships.

The extension is attached by a connecting-corridor on the west side of the main house. This enables the residents to switch their mindset before entering into the other living space, and the common garden maintains a proper sense of distance.

By relying on the main house for the large kitchen, bathroom, and future children’s room, only a few functions for a living space are required for the extended part. The living spaces are aggregated into a simple continuous structure, which consists of small, 2m high, U-shaped bearing walls. A V-beam roof truss is made with 62mm panels and structural plywood on both sides, and it is topped with a 69mm thin roof. By overlapping the bearing walls and the V-beam frame, and by using a variety of finishes, contrasting spaces are created and a sense of scale in the vertical direction is born in the flat house. By doing so, as the residents’ living scenes unfold, light and air freely circulate in the space, and the people’s lines-of-sight extend beyond the area in a state of freedom. We intended to leave a rich blank space that fosters the imaginations of the residents.

Text provided by the architect.

La entrada Koya No Sumika se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

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Warehouse in Aego

Koya No Sumika