Lighthouse Residential Building

Lighthouse Residential Building
© YSLA Architects
Lighthouse Residential Building
© Munetaka Onodera

LIGHTHOUSE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING

YSLA Architects

ARCHITECTS
YSLA Architects

CURTAINS
Studio Onder de Linde

CONTRACTOR
FUJIKEN

STRUCTURE
yAt Structure Design Office

ARCHITECT IN CHARGE
YSLA architects

PHOTOGRAPHS
Munetaka Onodera

DESIGN TEAM
YSLA architects

LOCATION
Shinjuku City, Japan

YEAR
2020

CATEGORY
Residential Interiors, Residential

Text description provided by architect.

Lighthouse Tokyo is a nine-story building that was designed as a hotel in the neighborhood of Shinjuku, Tokyo, and has been delivered as a residential building due to the impact of COVID-19 on the Tokyo tourism business.

Lighthouse Residential Building
© YSLA Architects
Lighthouse Residential Building
© Munetaka Onodera

The building is in a crossing along Waseda street. The façade was conceived as a concrete levitating sheet, that erases the boundaries between interior and exterior, public and private, and opens to the street intersection through two round cuts inviting people from every direction.

The building was thought of as a lighthouse for travelers. The ground floor, reconverted into a co-working space for the residents is the expression of the new normality.

Lighthouse Residential Building
© YSLA Architects
Lighthouse Residential Building
© Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Residential Building
© YSLA Architects

The building was planned as a series of open floors with a plan developed around the doma space 土間. The doma is in traditional Japanese buildings an area associated with daily use and the entrance points, and it was the center of socialization.

In this space, the guests are allowed to enter with shoes, and is the place to gather. The doma is surrounded by a raised floor area that becomes a flexible platform for quiet activities and night use.

In this shoeless space, the futons are placed at night depending on the number of guests. The boundary between the doma and the raised floor can be close using light partitions, wooden blinds, or curtains.

Lighthouse Residential Building
© Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Residential Building
© YSLA Architects
Lighthouse Residential Building
© YSLA Architects

The flexibility of the space together with a plan which enhances the Covid-19 guidelines for ventilation, made possible a successful transformation into apartments. Although the building was planned as a hotel we envisioned the importance of the interior-exterior spaces and we design the plan with two balconies per floor.

In the new apartment layout one balcony is used for leisure and the other for BOH purposes. These spaces become even more valuable in the middle of the Covid pandemic.

Lighthouse Residential Building
© YSLA Architects
Lighthouse Residential Building
© Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Residential Building
© YSLA Architects

YSLA designed Miwa みわ as modular and flexible furniture that can be assembled and used in different ways and remembers the spirit of the lighthouse in its shape.


Lighthouse Residential Building
Axonometric Diagram

Lighthouse Residential Building
Furniture Diagram