No Walls

The same day we discussed the Moriyama House by SANAA, Dezeen posted an article about Tato Architects’ House in Miyamoto, which is essentially the exact opposite of SANAA’s design. While SANAA’s design is a series of buildings divided up by their programmatic function and connected by outdoor courtyards, Tato Architect’s design is one large room split into various spiraling programmatic levels. This unique approach reminded me of Henri Lefebvre’s quote that “everyday life is what remains once you have eliminated all specialized activities.”  In this case, everyday life is what remains after all the walls within a house have been removed. How does this affect the life of the its users? Is this a functional or even practical way to live? (Apparently none of them have spent time in the big, noisy box of Lee 3).

            Here, the architects imposed tactic into their design, responding to the clients’ request for an “interior space that facilitates a stronger connection between its occupants” (Dezeen). Like SANAA’s project, the simply-built structure grants a freedom of use that truly influences the composition. These living platforms begin to introduce human interaction in new ways atypical from traditional residential design. What is floor can now become table at another level. Circulation is unrestricted, views are unlimited. Architecture, built just as the framework (literally just a series of floors under a roof, almost as basic as you can get in design), is now formally influencing the life of its occupants, rethinking the way they inhabit space and go about their daily lives.

 Spiraling levels of the house.

Occupation of the home.

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/02/28/tato-architects-osaka-architecture-house-miyamoto/