Total Housing - MAKOTO YOKOMIZO


	Project: TEO HOUSING BUILDING MAKOTO YOKOMIZO Actar: How did this project originate? Why are the rooms so, so small? Was this an unavoidable part of the brief? Wasn’t there any way to make them bigger than they are now? Makoto Yokomizo: The Nakagin Capsule Tower of Kisho Kurokawa has 10sqm per unit. It was designed to be ‘den’, ‘study’, ‘base’ or ‘annex’ for the people in the city. This TEO follows the same design and programmatic logic. The residents we had in mind would have another home far from the central urban areas, and would rent this flat as a sort of second residence. In this neighborhood there are many facilities and companies with medical experts who operate on 24 hour schedules, stock market dealers, people in the mass media etc... they are the target of this project. The rental fee is calculated by adding up the taxi fare for a month, and then the surface area is obtained as the ration between that amount and the rental prices in the area. To what extent is design innovation relevant in such stringent conditions? As you imagine, we didn’t have much design freedom strictly speaking. But we tried to capture the meaning of design in a wider sense. Our understanding of design involves the organization and integration of various contradictory things and events. In this sense, this project was really challenging. We studied the position of the walls in order to adapt it to the standard single bed sold by Muji, and examined a person's movement between toilet seat, washbasin and window frames to determine the curve of the washbasin... This is probably closer to the design of cars, trains, airplanes or ships rather than regular architecture. What kind of people live in these apartments – single, couples? Are they used as permanent or as temporary residences, maybe as a pied-à-terre in the city? I got to know a man who lives in the top apartment. He lives alone here, and works for JAL (Japanese Airlines). He chose to live here because 1) It is close to Haneda Airport. 2) At night he has a beautiful view from his window. 3) The rent was incredibly good compared to other apartments he had seen. He has a house in Karatsu, Kyushu (in the south of Japan), which he can easily get to to given that he enjoys special discount airfares. He showed me a video of the house, and it was like a house in the movie rather than a real home, because the location is too fantastic – located on a cove, it seems like you can jump right into the sea from the living room window. And I have heard that there is another resident who is a cabin attendant. I think that there is a big need for living spaces in this type of location and with low rental rates among people in their 30s and early 40s who are fully immersed in their jobs. Do you think this building is very unique in Tokyo? And is it only possible in this city? The way we live in the contemporary city has been changing very rapidly. Our life is surrounded by intelligent home electronic appliances, networked computers, 3rd generation mobile phones, etc. Our personal space is now unlimited as that of the video game world. On the other hand, the typical family unit made up of a couple and two children makes up less than 1/3 of today's households. We eat vacuum-packed, ready-to-eat food which is supervised by first-class chefs, heated by intelligent microwave ovens. I think that the Nakagin Capsule Tower was designed 40 years too early... Anyhow, I imagine this applies to any other city in the world. So I think that the idea of this building is certainly applicable outside Tokyo. Back to Main Page

Project: TEO HOUSING BUILDING
MAKOTO YOKOMIZO

Actar: How did this project originate? Why are the rooms so, so small? Was this an unavoidable part of the brief? Wasn’t there any way to make them bigger than they are now?
Makoto Yokomizo: The Nakagin Capsule Tower of Kisho Kurokawa has 10sqm per unit. It was designed to be ‘den’, ‘study’, ‘base’ or ‘annex’ for the people in the city. This TEO follows the same design and programmatic logic. The residents we had in mind would have another home far from the central urban areas, and would rent this flat as a sort of second residence. In this neighborhood there are many facilities and companies with medical experts who operate on 24 hour schedules, stock market dealers, people in the mass media etc... they are the target of this project. The rental fee is calculated by adding up the taxi fare for a month, and then the surface area is obtained as the ration between that amount and the rental prices in the area.

To what extent is design innovation relevant in such stringent conditions?
As you imagine, we didn’t have much design freedom strictly speaking. But we tried to capture the meaning of design in a wider sense. Our understanding of design involves the organization and integration of various contradictory things and events. In this sense, this project was really challenging. We studied the position of the walls in order to adapt it to the standard single bed sold by Muji, and examined a person's movement between toilet seat, washbasin and window frames to determine the curve of the washbasin... This is probably closer to the design of cars, trains, airplanes or ships rather than regular architecture.

What kind of people live in these apartments – single, couples? Are they used as permanent or as temporary residences, maybe as a pied-à-terre in the city?
I got to know a man who lives in the top apartment. He lives alone here, and works for JAL (Japanese Airlines). He chose to live here because
1) It is close to Haneda Airport.
2) At night he has a beautiful view from his window.
3) The rent was incredibly good compared to other apartments he had seen.
He has a house in Karatsu, Kyushu (in the south of Japan), which he can easily get to to given that he enjoys special discount airfares. He showed me a video of the house, and it was like a house in the movie rather than a real home, because the location is too fantastic – located on a cove, it seems like you can jump right into the sea from the living room window. And I have heard that there is another resident who is a cabin attendant. I think that there is a big need for living spaces in this type of location and with low rental rates among people in their 30s and early 40s who are fully immersed in their jobs.

Do you think this building is very unique in Tokyo? And is it only possible in this city?
The way we live in the contemporary city has been changing very rapidly. Our life is surrounded by intelligent home electronic appliances, networked computers, 3rd generation mobile phones, etc. Our personal space is now unlimited as that of the video game world. On the other hand, the typical family unit made up of a couple and two children makes up less than 1/3 of today's households. We eat vacuum-packed, ready-to-eat food which is supervised by first-class chefs, heated by intelligent microwave ovens. I think that the Nakagin Capsule Tower was designed 40 years too early... Anyhow, I imagine this applies to any other city in the world. So I think that the idea of this building is certainly applicable outside Tokyo.

Back to Main Page

Yokomizo