Making the most of a small footprint within a crowded, competitive shopping zone, architect Stephan Jaklitsch married textural layers of materiality with a creative lighting strategy to catch the eye of tony passersby, and to create a subtle yet unique visibility for the American fashion designer Marc Jacobs’s Tokyo flagship.
Completion Date: December 2009 Program: A 1,345-square-foot salon in the basement of a commercial building in Tokyo's trendy Daikanyama neighborhood. Design concept and solution: Yamaguchi wanted to take a basic, stripped-down space that had seen a lot of wear from previous tenants and make it over without covering up the age and texture of the room. He preserved the open-plan layout--a simple rectangle with exposed wood beams and skylights--and painted the pocked concrete-block walls white. On the rough concrete floor, he filled in depressions with mortar, creating amorphous white shapes recalling landmasses--a "time map" highlighting the history of the space.
As dazzling as a perfect smile, IWI Orthodontics makes a bold first impression, but its elegant beauty lingers on long after. Filling the fourth floor of an existing building in the heart of Tokyo’s hip Harajuku neighborhood, the clinic specializes in an implant orthodontia system patented by its head doctor. With the goal of creating an equally innovative office space, he hired the New York City—based firm Contemporary Architecture Practice (CAP). The result of their collaboration is a sleek interior that seamlessly merges cutting-edge medical technology with gracious Japanese hospitality. As if greeting guests at a traditional inn, a staff
Record Houses 2010: Mountain House Pittman Dowell Residence Project X Tree House Villa Vals Woodstock Farm Well Hall Project Specs Tree House Tokyo Mount Fuji Architects Studio << Return to article the People Architect: Masahiro Harada+MAO/MOUNT FUJI ARCHITECTS STUDIO Akasaka heights 501 9-5-26 Akasaka,Minato-ku Tokyo 107-0052 *tel+fax +81(0)3-3475-1800 Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit: Architect of record: Naoto Ishii Engineer(s):Jun Sato structural engineers Consultant(s): Shin-ei General contractor: Asterisk Builders Photographer(s): Ken'ichi Suzuki +81 4 7171 0186 Shinkenchiku-sha +81 3 3811 7101 CAD system, project management, or other software used: Vector works the Products Structural system: Wood
Inspired by that magical space sheltered beneath leafy, deciduous branches, Tree House, designed by Mount Fuji Architects Studio, revolves around a single column measuring 4 feet in diameter that supports frames (aka “branches”) of engineered wood.
