Japanese designer Yuko Shibata created separate living and working areas in this Tokyo apartment by installing two mobile walls. Update: this project is included in Dezeen Book of Ideas, which is on sale now for £12.
Called Switch, the project features one partition that slides out over the dining table to create a meeting room on one side and library on the other.
The second bookcase pivots round at the end of the day to reveal a bedroom.
Photographs are by Ryohei Hamda.
Here are some more details from Shibata:
SWITCH
This is the interior design of a single home office.
This room was previously used as a residential space.
It was the owner’ s intent that the floor plan could be changed to completely separate the living and office sections.
This request was rendered impossible, due to the original structure being of box frame type reinforced concrete construction, with almost all walls acting as supporting building frames.
The addition of two bookshelves, each with a large door, allowed us to create a space with the ability to adapt from home to office or from office to home, while leaving the original floor plan intact.
The first bookshelf was added to the meeting room. By moving the large door, the meeting space can be divided in two.
The space on the side of the bookshelf becomes a library. The large door also includes an opening in order to allow it to pass over the dining table.
In this way, the table is shared between the library and meeting spaces.
The second addition was in the bed room.The opening in the bookshelf creates a passage making it possible to approach the shelf from the office, without passing through the bedroom.
When the door is opened, it creates a partition between the the bedroom and study, and also has the effect of changing the space to a library.
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Principal Use: home and office
Category: Renovation
See also:
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| Interior Living Unit by Andrew Kline |
Les FLKS by Kapteinbolt |
REK bookcase by Reinier de Jong |
clever!
The first pic reminds me of the scene in Gilliam's Brazil where Sam Lowry is introduced to his new office at information retrieval, it made me laugh.
Its so intelligent! Big congratulation for this project!
i'm not sure what they've really accomplished here. it looks good and has obviously been designed with care, but couldn't two thick curtains have actually been a better solution? less cost, more of a noise barrier.
wondering how long could those tracks work for
clever solution for a renovation. indeed, it maximize the former space with new functionality.
one additional idea to gain flexibility in the timetable if living & working overlap: it would be nice to have an independant access to the living room (without interruptions to any meeting). what do you think?
clever idea for places like hongkong and singapore.
Genius solution i realy like it
a mediocre approach of what gary chang did for his own apartment. interesting
What's wrong with exposing the bookshelves?
if u look at the first pic, u notice that there is a pendant light hanging from the ceiling in the library area. but on the 2nd pic when the wall is slide in, the pendant light seems to be outside of the wall.
i just want to know how that was possible. do u have to remove the light, then slide the wall out, then fix the light again?
anyway, clever use of space, well done.
this has been proposed many a time and is totally trivial compared to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9qnWg9kak
Home Office http://lazutin.com.ua/ru/design_magazine/office_d…
Even though a few guests commented that this has been done before, it it still a very innovative project. To think of ways to maximize space in such small spaces in crowded cities like in Japan are tricky! Great use of the sliding partition!