D House Shibuya-ku Tokyo
D House Shibuya-ku Tokyo
Ron Arad Architects
YEAR
2016
LOCATION
Tokyo, Japan
TYPE
Residential › Private House
This private residence is situated in the highly desirable Shibuya-ku area of central Tokyo, distinguished by densely arranged 2-3 storeyed detached houses.
In typical Tokyo fashion, the angular house occupies the oblong, rectangular site to maximum efficiency, with the street-facing façade expressing more freedom of form.
This is articulated into a playful, unfurled stack of patinated steel ribbons.
Combined with retractable steel mesh curtains, the frayed paper-like ribbons cast dynamic shadows across the building front.
They were designed to both form and enclose a front courtyard and cater to different levels of exposure to the street.
The stacked components decrease in height higher up the façade, in order to emphasise perspectival effect in a narrow street, and are mechanically fastened to the fair-faced concrete walls behind, celebrating the formal relation between standalone sculptural piece and a private house.
The collaborating architects were local practice, ISSHO Architects.
