Making full use of Tokyo’s rules and regulations, M House maximizes space and volume on a typically constrained urban site in Japan. Designed by Frontoffice Tokyo, this private house is designed with a home on its second floor, a yoga space on the roof, and also a dance studio on the ground floor. With 157 m2 in size, this house is completed in 2019.
Design
The design of this house is primitive and also almost cartoonish. It is a perfect design with a fitting approach for the clients who design a series of famously mysterious and unique dolls with a global following and sell them. The house volume and space are maximized, resulting in a simple plan with three single rooms that stacked one upon the other.
Structure
With a reflective aluminum screen, the ground floor of this house is buffered from the road. Otherwise, this floor is opened to its surroundings by continuous mirrors and windows. On this level, dancers can feel become a part of the surrounding city and not isolated. This house can be accessed by steel stairs while the second floor serves as a porch.
The house windows are placed as economical as possible to create light and deep in a small area. There is no attempt to frame the views around the house because the views are fleeting and the city doesn’t rest for a long time. The decks and garden work together with the interior to create an unmediated experience of the city.
Details
In the chaos of Tokyo, formal experimentation for a house is often lost but the architect enters another period of massive change through this project. The gap between what is possible and what is built has yet to be explored. So here in this project, the architect looks backward to move ahead on another track in designing a house within this urban area.
M House Gallery
Photography: Frontoffice Tokyo