Kagami's House
Back to Projects list- Location
- Tokyo, Japan
- Year
- 2022
This is a house with a store on a corner lot in the Shoin Shrine Street shopping street in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo.
The owner, Mr. Kagami, wants to open a restaurant on the first floor of his house in the future after his retirement, where he can enjoy the connection with the town,
The story begins when Mr. Kakami, the owner of the house, purchased this plot of land in search of a shopping district he liked.
However, the lot was only 50 square meters. The first floor was to be a “future diner” that would also serve as a family dining table, and a three-story wooden structure with a compact kitchen on the second and third floors was planned.
The first floor is a space under the eaves of the roof that looks out into the community, and is designed to be a kind of “town space” by cutting off the volume of the first floor at an angle to secure the view of the corner lot.
Of course, it is possible to sit down from the inside as well.
I always hope that the building will be an architecture that accompanies the owner's life after it is built.
The future cafeteria will be a cafeteria not “now” but “in the future.
And what about decades from now, when the body has deteriorated and you are old?
No matter what the future holds, just imagine being able to connect with the local community by simply going downstairs to the first floor of your home and living a leisurely life while feeling the breath of the city on your skin.
In the near future, Tokyo will become a super-aged society after the Corona disaster.
What is important in building a new house for that era is to shelve the “now” for a moment and build it while fantasizing about the “future. The “now” is very specific, discrete, and busy for everyone. However, the “future” may be similar to the present, and because the future is uncertain, it is possible to share it with others.
This is an architecture that will always run alongside the client, while helping him to run toward the future.
Site area: 50.8 m2,
Building area: 33.0 m2,
Total floor space: 93.6 m2
Structure: Nobuyuki Morinaga / MONO
Construction: Ogawa Construction
Cooperation: Hira Kaji Ayumi Obara (custom steel work),Hatano Wataru (Japanese paper production),Takahashi En (planting),Arisato Kobo (Goodwill),hyakka (basket weave rattan fittings)