core.form-ula

The building is a villa for a film-production family in Tokyo.

It is located in a mountain area of Atami, a famous resort spot for its hot-spring, about 100km far from the metropolis. The site is on a steep cliff, from where a splendid view of the Pacific Ocean can be appreciated. However, on the contrary, a furious wind coming up from the sea along a narrow valley and the humidity caused by a densely foggy weather are crucial conditions. The requirements from the client are as follows: 1) to adopt a piloti style against the humidity, 2) to make it as tall as possible in order to see the ocean over woods, 3) to avoid the violent wind, 4) an easy management of autumn fallen leaves, and 5) an unusual or even an extraordinary space which cannot be experienced in an urban housing.

The architecture is composed of two buildings; one is an ellipsoidal sphere, the other is a rectangular parallelepiped. They are supported by 6 columns, respectively, on a 3.6 meter grid formation, based on the Dom-ino by Le Corbusier. Against the wind, the former faces the valley in an aerodynamic manner, the latter stands behind woods. In both cases, the main skeleton is made of steel construction, and the ellipsoidal cage is formed by laminated timbers.

On a material of the sphere, the outer-skin is wholly covered by copper plates (t = 0.35mm). Because the copper will change its color with verdigris, the green rust, the artificial geometry will assimilate itself into the surroundings; ie. nature. At the same time, when the metal gets rust, it tunicates its own surface, so that the tunic protects the material itself against the salty wind from the sea. The copper, thus, endures with its function of rusting. (Considering the incessant inquiries for anti-rusting in the modern times, the material of copper resists against the modernity itself.)

While the rectangular parallelepiped is taken out as a mimesis of Modern Architecture. The cliche of Modern Architecture functions to dissimilate the ellipsoidal sphere on a single Cartesian grid. The dissimilation is a driving force to release the architecture of lusus naturae into the nature from the authenticity of Modernism tradition. As for the interior space, it furnishes only bedrooms, which means the lack of total functions under the fundamental conception in Modernism Architecture; that is to say, an organization (or a machine) for living.

In terms of the interior in general, all inner surface is painted in white at the client’s request. Because one can perceive “space” with corners interacting of light and shadow, in the bleached sphere of tabura-rasa, particularly, one can experience a certain endless space through voids as well as one’s own unreliable sense for understanding space itself. The game between architectural space and the human perception through human body is, thus, to provide the “extraordinariness” of this building.

function: villa
site area: 200sqm.
building area: 115sqm.
total floor area: 150sqm.
Architect: principal. Satoshi Okada
project manager. Lisa Tomiyama

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