SpaceInvading | collecting the best architecture & design from across the webosphere

W-Window House Designer: Alphaville
Location: Kyoto, Japan
The footprint of W-Window House is approximately 320 square feet (30 square meter). What is slightly unusual about the house is that the entrance doesn’t have a “tataki,” the concrete floor at the entrance which is normally one step lower than the rest of the floors in Japanese houses or apartments. The tataki is where you take off your shoes upon entering a house or an apartment in Japan. → whatwedoissecret.org Posted: 01/17/2009 digg | del.icio.us | stumble | email this

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Invisible House, aka No48A Designer: Odos Architects
Location: Rathfarnham, Ireland
Noted world-wide for its almost-impossible placement as a 1,600-sq.-ft. addition in a 1,500-sq.-ft. end-of-garden site, the house also features a spacious courtyard boasting 20-ft. bamboo plantings and an “invisible” front, which has earned this modern house its playful name. Explaining the unique exterior view, the home’s look is a culmination of its “semi-industrial” surroundings and the geometry of the property. → www.trendir.com Posted: 01/17/2009 digg | del.icio.us | stumble | email this

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“Komuten” Designer: Shinichi Ogawa Associates
Location: Kichijyoji, Tokyo, Japan
Image Credits: Nissyo Kogyo Design Department Mid to small size building contractors are called “Komuten” (or Sekoya-san) in Japan. It sounds old-fashioned to us but it’s a nice term. 　I may be getting a bit nostalgic since I had often worked with the people at these Komutens for my commissioned projects before I moved to the US, and the word means more than just a contractor to me… almost like a team of perfectionists. Although things might have changed in the past two decades, when I see a precise construction and impeccable finish like in this house, I can’t deny thinking that there are still many Komutens in Japan that could meet Tadao Ando’s (almost sick) standard of excellence in building construction. Nissyo Kogyo, the general contractor for this house, sure looks like one of them. → whatwedoissecret.org Posted: 01/17/2009 digg | del.icio.us | stumble | email this

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Hankai Designer: Katsuhiro Miyamoto & Associates
Location: Akashi, Hyogo, Japan
“Hankai” means partial destruction in Japanese. Hyogo based architect Katsuhiro Miyamoto performed a radical ‘plastic and reconstructive surgery’ on an old house which had suffered damage by the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. The new addition of the house replaced the 300-year-old Nagayamon gate and other parts of the house where the damage and deterioration were beyond repair. The new addition raps around the surviving part of the original house to support the weakened structure. → whatwedoissecret.org Posted: 01/17/2009 digg | del.icio.us | stumble | email this

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