This is a renovation project of single-family house, originally used as a typical two-story apartment-house with eight small rental units in the suburban area of Tokyo, Japan. More than half of the units of this old wooden apartment were empty, therefore the owner wanted to demolish it and then build a new single-family house (parents and two girls) at the beginning. However, I proposed to renovate this existing building into a single-family house because of their budget.
I started with cutting a hole inside the apartment to connect eight rooms. The existing building has rigid 3D grid, consisting of the walls and floors, which systematically divide the internal space into eight. I cut 2D shapes (triangle or quadrangle, not pentagon) out from this grid system. As a rule, I decided these 2D shapes should not follow the 3D grid. For example, one triangle shape was cut out crossing the grid between the first floor and the second, and placed beyond the X and Y coordinate plane. I used different vivid colors as “Four color theorem” for each 2D shape, which is not following the grid, to emphasize the presence. As we stand inside, we can find two different types of depth ( =perspective view) in the same space.
The scenery reminded me of a picture of Cubism, which has distortion of perspective between 2D and 3D. We can see scenery, in which triangles and quadrangles gathered, overlapped and intersecting each other, creating diversity of spaces into one place.
Architecture cannot escape from 3D grid system, and paintings also cannot escape from 2D on the other hand. In the history of art, cubist found an emerging depth of space in their 2D paintings. Similarly, may architecture discover its emerging depth in the 3D space?
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