Genji Paper Sculpture Museum

This museum exhibits Japanese paper carvings and sculptures of Mr. Kiyoharu Uchiumi. He has reproduced some scenes from the Tales of Genji, which is the masterpiece written by Murasaki Shikibu in the Heian period.
Mr. Uchiumi's aim is that visitors appreciate his works with all their five senses.
Lighting and music complement and allow full expression of his works The entire exhibition hall is a big stage, and the spectators walk by and appreciate individual scenes on the stage.
We have reproduced the half-seen images viewed by Genji by using semitransparent partitions that re-create the atmosphere of the Imperial Court.

The partitions are created from laminated glass plates, with thin stainless steel mesh inserted between them, in order to give a dreamlike quality to the artist's works.

Finer and more delicate materials than the usual architectural materials were used to achieve a balance with the artist's works. We experimented with a lot of industrial woven materials that have a similar structure to Japanese paper made of plant fibers and ultimately a thin stainless mesh was selected. Laminated glass plates with lustrous stainless mesh have the exact effect we wanted to achieve for the partition of the hall and the facade. This special laminated glass provides expresses the mystery of the artist's work.

Two opposite effects are superimposed. One comes from the reduced image visible through the stainless mesh and the other comes from the increased reflection on the glass surfaces.

By focusing lighting on the exhibits and reducing the entire brightness in the hall the boundaries between real image and virtual image overlap and then blend. A feeling of floating is thus engendered..
The image seen through the glass changes over time and with viewing position.

Genji, an Imperial Prince, observed ladies in the Imperial Court through bamboo blinds.
The obscured glimpses of the Court ladies sharpened his five senses and imagination in ways that would not have occurred with direct sight.
Temporary, semi-transparent partitions were used in houses then and transiently transparent boundaries are key to re-creating the Japanese old architecture and culture.

Aoyama Building

This is a complex building for offices, photo studios and shops on an intersection in a downtown area in Tokyo.
The shape of the site is triangular. The main structure of the building is constructed of thin steel pillars and diagonal braces in order to secure interior spaces as large as possible.
We have planted roses covering the facade up to 30m high from the grand level. The leaves of the roses act as a green wall on the intersection. Yellow dots of flowers appear on the green wall in spring and autumn.

House Borrowing the green environment (I-F House)

This is a residence for a cameraman and his wife in a residential area in Tokyo.
On the way from the nearby railway station to the site, established big trees are seen here and there. They have been preserved deliberately by the local people, who share the same values in retaining some of the original nature of the place.
This residential area is one of the greenest and richest districts in Tokyo. The high proportion of the green zones is due to the strictness of city planning regulations. Under the regulations allowable coverage ratio and floor area ratio are 40% and 80% respectively.
The green zones can act as buffers between residences. Since the clients wished to bring the green environment into their living space, this was key to our design.
The site faces a road on the West side. The West side of neighboring residences to the North and South are open green spaces. Enough of the green zones can be seen in the Northwest and Southwest directions although the west neighboring residence rises just beyond the road.
Taking advantage of the conditions of the location, we chose a T-shaped plan in which the stem part of T stretches to the West.
The clients requested a room where they could enjoy listening to music without disturbing the neighbors and a spacious living room where they could have home parties with their friends. We placed the living room on the second floor with access from outside (and inside?), while we placed private rooms on the first floor. Access to the private rooms and the basement was internal only. The positions of openings were determined by a simple rule, windows faced the green zones and walls faced neighboring residences. Since the glass areas are large, double glazed vacuum-sealed units are used to reduce running costs.
There is some risk that the green areas may change use, but we consider the risk to be small given the mutual benefits of these green areas to all the local residents.

Light well House

Site

According to an old map, the site was formerly paddy fields, situated along the courses of streams. Due to urbanization in modern times, the streams are led through underground drains. The land use has changed to a densely populated residential area comprising three or four storey buildings. There is no trace of the old character of the area.
To the North the site faces a road, alongside which runs a long line of cherry trees arranged over an underground drain. The site is surrounded by neighboring buildings on the East, West and South sides. The size of the site is 7 m in width and 21 m in depth. The site is so restricted that the client thought the site was like the bottom of a well.

Data

This residence is currently a weekend house in Tokyo for the client couple, who usually live in Hokkaido. It was also planned to be a permanent house for them and their son's family in the future.
Our planning focused on the future life style of the client rather than the current one. For this purpose, we thought the planning should have as much flexibility as possible.

The client's requests were:
1) The entrance and water-using facilities should avoid non-propitious directions according to Fengshui.
2) The two-generation families should be completely separated.
3) A bright and open atmosphere should be optimized in the densely packed urban area.
4) It should be possible to see and enjoy the cherry blossoms from the house

Planning
Due to the bad soil condition of the site, we adopted a simple hard concrete box structure supported by piles. The spacious terrace, from which the cherry blossoms can be enjoyed, is suspended by the box structure with rods and struts, in order to reduce the area supported by the piles.
We placed the entrance and stairs in one concrete tube core and the kitchen and bathroom in another one. The two concrete tubes are placed in the rectangular box structure and aligned in a propitious direction. As a result, a gradually curved space is formed. A path of gentle breeze and an impression of depth are made along the curved space.
The curved space can be flexibly divided with sliding partitions. Also we aimed to characterize each room by different levels.

Light well

An atrium is placed between the two concrete cores. Cylindrical shaped top lights are located in a random manner on the roof slab over the atrium. The top lights are painted with several colors with the paint patterns determined by the sunlight angle. Sunlight coming through the top lights is reflected and scattered on the wall surfaces. Several bright colors, yellow, green, navy blue and so on appear on the wall surfaces and change over time as the angle of the sunlight changes and the intensity of the sunlight is affected by the weather.
We aimed at creating a life space where people can feel the change of weather and the day through the movement of the sun and clouds, even if people do not see the sky directly.

Mutsue Hayakusa
1963 Born in Tokyo, Japan.

1986 Graduated from Tokyo University Faculty of Engineering,
Architectural Department.

1988-1991 Worked with Nihon Sekkei inc.
1991 Established Cell Space Architects.

First prize in competition of Nasunogahara-Harmony hall. Visiting lecturer at Tokyo University, Science University of Tokyo,
Nihon University.

http://www.cell-space.com/

©copyright archphoto - Mutsue Hayakusa