PIYO BUILDING. Tokyo Japan (2013)

This Project is singular for its location. The client of the project is a restless friend. She is anuniversity professor and Japanese writer.She asked us to design a little house with Barcelona’s character in the Tokyo’s center, Japan.

We wanted to answer her needs and wishes and also understand the spaces and building system in Tokyo. We worked in the house concept during different working sessions in many places of Europe (Paris, Menorca…). Later on, we made contact with a Japanese architect, M. Ishi, to develop the normative and constructive aspects.

The building is composedby two floors and an attic. In the lower floor, you can find two apartments to rent and in the upper floor, the main program is developed.

In this interior design of the house, was very important where we placed the living room related to courtyard’s views. The open kitchen is connected to the living room, and gives a functional and open space, similar to the European character. From the lower floor you can access using wood stairs to the hall, organized to be a reading room. In the same floor, you can also find a traditional tatami room, the bathroom and a study. The workspace is defined with a big library, where the books are the protagonists. From the library, by using light stairs, you can go to the bedroom and the upper balcony, that allows a vision of the Tokyo’s roof, like happens in all the Mediterranean.

The building has concrete foundations and constructed with modular wood system with the requirements of the anti-earthquakes laws.

The experience of projecting and constructing a building in another country that has other traditions for architecture and for culture had been very positive. It allowed us to cross overmany conceptual barriers and also learn about new construction techniques. I wish to continue.