Kengo Kuma & Associates

I have employed plastic for the project, the house for a mother (writer) and a son (photographer). The dwelling stands in the center of the city and various parts of ‘living’ are open to the urban condition. Mother’s room is a small antique museum and there is a constant flow of people in and out the studio. Outdoor open space on the ground floor is a tearoom without roof where the client holds the tea ceremonies for his friends. The roof terrace is his outdoor studio and also the party space in the air.

I intended to form such a relationship to the city through the use of plastic (FRP). In Edo period the material, wood lead the tenant housing to the creation of the cityscape. Relation is not to be described=realized by its plan. It is to be realized by its materiality. FRP is 4mm thick material in various shapes from pultrusion. I created relationships of different qualities by combining these shapes.

It is a very unique material that sometimes appears like rice paper and sometimes like bamboo due to the quality of contained fibers. I designed details with special treatment not to lessen this quality. Instead of using bead at joints, butyl rubber and plastic screws were selected for the construction. The materiality of plastic that appears like a living creature would stand by using these details then the material starts to communicate to our body. In this project I thought of ‘living’ not through the plan, but through the material.