Soeda and Associates

The site is located halfway up the slope in a quiet residential area in Tokyo. The existing wooden apartment building stood on the elevated land with stone retaining wall (which height varies from 1.2 meter to 2.0 meter) along the road. The owner who had been living in this area for a long time requested us to preserve the stone retaining wall upon constructing a new building. It made sense for us to preserve the stone wall that served as an important element in the streetscape. We therefore decided to preserve the stone wall and place a white solid mass to create a clear contrast between the old and new.

The small apartment building contains two duplex apartment units placed side by side, facing the frontal road on the north side. The second floor has a 3.886-mm high ceiling, and a loft space is provided above the kitchen in each apartment unit. The kitchen and loft floors are uniformly finished with Japanese linden and serve as main interior elements.

Urban spaces in Japan are constantly renewed through building renewal, road construction and development. Sometimes renewal efforts leave traces of the past, which gradually accumulate and add a sense of depth to urban spaces. One of the effective methods of urban renewal is to construct a new building while preserving a piece of memory of the place like we did in this project.