Yanaka Terrace

Tokyo, Japan

Collective Housing + Multiple Houses

Architects: aat + makoto yokomizo architects

Location: 台東区, Tokyo, Japan
Year: 2012
Team: Architect: aat+makoto yokomizo architects Inc., Structural design: Structured Environment

This is the cooperative housing of nine houses which is facing Kototoi Street. The mansion of Taisho Era stood before the plan. The main building which had escaped the war devastation of World War II seemed to be the historic property of this area. Moreover, It seemed time had sunk deeply on the surface of the warehouse or the stone pavement and the stone lantern in the garden. These were the “texture of city” which I myself feel to Yanaka’s town. We carried out the workshops for the residents of this building. The history of the town has been held, we walked along the “narrow alley” characteristic of this area, that feeling of a scale was tasted, and a color and a material peculiar to the area were found. In the cooperative projects, the production of a architecture and the production of human relations advance simultaneously. The design process which such a workshop is included was very effective. It would polish up “texture of city”. I wish this building to be “the historic property of the area” in the far future.