T HOUSE | FATHOM

When we were commissioned to renovate a newly built condominium for sale, our challenge was to create a space that would make the most of the new and beautiful living environment that was currently fully habitable. During our visits to the site, we observed that while the location, security and convenience were excellent, the furnishings and other items were a combination of mass-produced ready-made items. This seemed to us to be a combination that could be considered luxurious, but perhaps not in the way that the client had in mind. We felt that this was where the answer lay this time.

After further discussions with the client, it was agreed that two elements would be considered as the axis of the space: the use of upcycled paint made from oyster shells throughout the space, and the introduction of greenery into the space. 

In order to change the view unique to the condominium, boards were applied on top of the wooden frames of the existing sashes. The walls were uniformly finished with oyster shell paint, which has a delicate texture and is smaller than the smallest grain of ricin. The edges of the wall surfaces and the base of the existing wooden frames were softly and delicately coated, so that the existing sashes and wooden frames were not visible from the outside. The common landscape of a series of ready-made sashes and wooden frames was transformed to create a more unified and harmonious space. The existing fixtures and fittings were then carefully removed from the wooden and stone grain prints, while retaining their functionality. The grain of the lauan wood was selected and stained to match the delicacy of the shell paint, with the grain transparency being adjusted accordingly.

Rather than simply placing potted ornamental plants, we considered whether it might be possible to physically interact with the greenery in the corner environment of the upper floors. We placed the greenery on the boundary between the study and dining room, creating a soft organic partition between the two spaces and integrating the floor, pots and dining room bench. We hope you will agree that the architectural device integrating the dining bench was finished in the same material with micro cement. By sculpturally forming the upper part of the dining bench into a trapezoidal shape as a bowl, the normal surface of the bowl becomes the backrest of the bench. When you sit there, the leaves are above your head, as if you are resting on the trunk of a tree under the sunlight filtering through the leaves, surrounded by greenery that you can normally only experience . It is possible to experience a special moment of contact with greenery, which can normally only be experienced on the Grand Line, on the upper floors, which gives a sense of floating. In order to blend the greenery into the whole space, the lack of small beams in the ceiling frame, which has been dismantled and exposed, is connected with a mirrored surface, so that the reflection of daily life is projected onto the inorganic concrete ceiling.

Based on my own experience of living in a flat for more than ten years since I was born, I believe that it is more fulfilling to spend one's days in a space where one's own thoughts are reflected, rather than living everyday surrounded by mass-produced ready-made products or building materials with printed patterns. It might be said that the method often used in old vintage condominiums offers a new hook for the way of creating living environments in today's condominiums. In this way, the interior spaces of newly built condominiums in Japan, with their uniform landscape like chain shops that can be seen everywhere, could be reborn with the thoughts of the residents while making use of their safe and secure functionality. We hope that this will be a new approach to creating living environments in condominiums these days.

[JP]

新築の分譲マンションのリノベーションを依頼された時、現状で充分住める新しく綺麗な住環境をどのように活かし空間を作り上げていくかが課題となった。現場に何度も足を運び既存の空間を眺め紐解くなか、立地や厳重なセキュリティや利便性に優れながら住む人が触れるものや設えは大量生産された既製品の組み合わせ、豊かな暮らしの定義の中にデザインするという行為だけ置き去りにされたまま高級という言葉を謳っているように見え、そこに今回の答えがあるのではないかと感じた。 

施主との協議を重ね、かき殻を用いたアップサイクルの塗料を空間全体に用いること、グリーンを空間に取り入れるという二つの要素を空間の軸として考える事となった。 

マンションならではの景色を変えるために、既存のサッシの木枠に合わせ上からボードをツラで追い貼りし、壁面はリシンの最小粒よりも小さく繊細なテクスチャーを持つかき殻塗料で一様に仕上げ、壁面のエッジや既存木枠の下地を柔らかく繊細にコーティングすることで既製品サッシと木枠が連なる所謂よくみる風景を消失させ空間全体にとってキャンパスのような立ち位置に見えるように考えた。その上で既存什器や建具は機能は活かしながら木目や石目がプリントされた建材部分を取り除き、ラワン材の木目を選定しかき殻塗料の繊細さに合わせながら木目の透かし具合を調整し染色している。

観葉植物は単純に鉢植えしたものを置くのではなく、高層階の角面という環境の中でより身体的にグリ―ンと向き合えることができないかを考え、書斎とダイニングの境界線上にグリーンを配置し、二つの空間を柔らかく有機的に仕切ったうえで床と鉢とダイニングのベンチを一体化した建築的な装置をマイクロセメントで同素材に仕上げた。ダイニングベンチの高さから上部分を鉢として彫刻的に台形に形作ることで鉢の法面はベンチの背もたれにもなり、そこに座ることで葉は自分の頭より上に存在し、まるで葉の木漏れ日の下で木の幹に持たれてひと休みするように普段はグランドラインでしか味わえない緑に包まれ触れ合える特別なひと時を高層階で浮遊感を持たせながら体験することができる。より緑を空間全体に溶け込ませるために解体して現しになった躯体天井の小梁部分の欠如箇所を鏡面で繋ぐことで日々の暮らしが無機質なコンクリートの天井に投影されることとなる。

私自身が生まれた時から十数年間マンションで暮らしてきた経験を踏まえ、大量に生産された既製品やプリント柄の建材を組み合わせたものに囲まれて毎日暮らすことより、自分の思いがこめられた空間で日々を過ごせることの方が豊かな日々を過ごせるのではないかと思う。古いヴィンテージのマンションではよく行われている手法を、どこでも拝見できるチェーン店のような一様な風景の日本の新築マンションの内部空間において、その安心安全な機能は活かしつつも住む人の思いを込めて空間生まれ変わらせるという昨今のマンションにおける住環境の作り方に対する新たなフックになってくれればと願っている。

Lead Architects: Hiroyuki Nakamoto

Photography Credits: Tatsuya Tabii (https://tatsuyatabii.format.com/)