This Tokyo house by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto has hardly any walls and looks like scaffolding (photos by Iwan Baan).
House NA has three storeys that are subdivided into many staggered platforms.
The few walls that do exist are mostly glass, making certain spaces secure without adding privacy.
See more projects by Sou Fujimoto here, including a stack of four house-shaped apartments.
See more images of this project on the photographer's website.
Here's some more information from the architects:
House like a single Tree
House standing within a residential district in central Tokyo.
To dwell in a house, amongst the dense urbanity of small houses and structures can be associated to living within a tree. Tree has many branches, all being a setting for a place, and a source of activities of diverse scales.
The intriguing point of a tree is that these places are not hermetically isolated but are connected to one another in its unique relativity. To hear one's voice from across and above, hopping over to another branch, a discussion taking place across branches by members from separate branches. These are some of the moments of richness encountered through such spatially dense living.
By stratifying floor plates almost furniture-like in scale, throughout the space, this house proposes living quarters orchestrated by its spatio-temporal relativity with one another, akin to a tree. The house can be considered a large single-room, and, if each floor is understood as rooms, it can equally be said that the house is a mansion of multifarious rooms. A unity of separation and coherence.
Elements from furniture scales come together to collectively form scale of rooms, and further unto those of dwellings, of which renders the city.
The steps between the plates at times will become seating and desks, at times as a device segmenting a territory, and at times each akin to leaves of the foliage filtering light down into the space.
Providing intimacy for when two individuals chooses to be close to one another, or for a place afar still sharing each other's being. For when accommodating a group of guests, the distribution of people across the entire house will form a platform for a network type communication in space.
The white steel-frame structure itself shares no resemblance to a tree.
Yet the life lived and the moments experienced in this space is a contemporary adaptation of the richness once experienced by the ancient predecessors from the time when they inhabited trees. Such is an existence between city, architecture, furniture and the body, and is equally between nature and artificiality.
Where do they have sex?
with the lights off
in a hotel off course :)
The house is already filled with offspring. Perhaps It's the world's first piece of chastity architecture.
in the blue car
They have curtains, (www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0OShflQnG0) and
what about the endless possibilities (staircases,levels…).
I think this is the most interesting small house in recent years.
There was an article somewhere only about three months ago that the Japanese are not as interested in sex as we sex obsessed anglo saxon / gallic / latino etc etc, and we're only obsessed when we're not getting enough, or what we think is enough, and as everybody exaggerates it's difficult to know what is enough. I always think that five time a night is not enough and I'm 67 !!
In the car.
I think as a concept ; it has potential. It is different, transparent as our modern life today. However; what makes a home is privacy. You go your home just because of safe feeling.
"Home is where you can poop easier"
So getting back to question #1…
Their architects, they don’t have sex!
They are: grammer, please.
Grammar: spelling please.
there is a sex closet in the back. look at the plan!!!
Crikes. Not exactly a sanctuary is it. I wonder if the kids are meant to wear white every day.
It's an interesting study, but seems much more like art than functional architecture. And apparently life safety can kiss it.
very well done tree analogy and it's really touching! cutting edge as well! big respect for that!
but shouldn't trees be located in the nature instead of a high density town area?
This house looks idiotic from an energy point of view (Is the glazing unit insulated? Is there a low-e coating? Any shading devices? Is there insulation on the roof?…). This concept seems to be for a greenhouse in summer and a freezer in winter.
My thoughts exactly! For the cost of the energy spent on air conditioning and heating in one year, you could buy another house like that. Or even better, a proper house :)
I also don't see much for resisting any lateral forces. Also don't see any sealant on the windows (this would add thick lines) or air conditioning or heater or much way to provide natural ventilation.
However I see cool youngster with an Apple computer and a 2CV car.
I love modern design and glass but sustainability should not be put aside.
Anti Tadao Ando architecture …
very good !
With so many windows, How about temperature oscillations (net of sex)?
Is this really a job for a client? or just architect's own installation?
If this is a job from a client, I really admire the client willing to spent tons of money for a not inhabitable house like this.
But if I have same money I would definitely buy a "Picasso" that is re-sellable.
editorial mistake: this is a habitat for cats.
They should have called it the Facebook House. A true testimony to the sharing impulse of today's youth ;)
exactly
Love how most people are concerned about having sex in this building… I think it would be rather thrilling… like having a sneaky one in the public toilets or in a park… the thrill of being caught red handed is half the fun! maybe the architect and the clients are thrill seekers!
have fun cleaning those windows come spring…
There's a double interview in Mark Magazine with both the architect and his structural engineer.
silly thing called 'house'.
certainly not a home! stupid-est thing i ve'ever seen, waste of land time and money.
they cant even prick their nose! cummon!
The concept has lot of potential.. So also the sections and and furniture like stratification. The spatial organization almost works.. However, the concept is taken too far.. A bit too obsessed with making transparency, making-a-point / looks-good-in-pictures / installation architecture than a livable house. Cant judge it without client brief though..
Hah… It is kind of sad to see this thread dominated by engineers with no imagination what so ever!
This project is amazing, and should be seen as an experiment put in to physical form, rather than matching it with the common family house.
What does it matter if the house doesnt match the recent U-values, when Sou Fujimoto challenges and developes the very boundaries of human relationship.
For those who dislikes, go to engineering.com and get a hard-on over the latest highefficient insulation.
The issue is not about Art VS Engineering, but "what is Art" or "how Architecture works in a society" are the questions that should be asked first.
Had a quick look for that sooper dooper insulation but to no avail. Any chance of a link?
99.9% of the people who visit this site will never have the opportunity to pull this level of architecture off. It is archi-masturbation that is now a cottage industry within the profession. As long as you can find a rich client to build it…get it photographed and smother the internet with your brilliance…publishing offers, teaching positions, and perhaps seats at symposiums will follow.
In the end though, it is just a building that is important only to itself and the people who created it. People need to quit living by the existence of others via an internet connection.
The internet is a boring place…turn off the computer, put down the phone…and go out into the physical world and (re)claim your existence.
Christopher, people expressing concerns over this project is natural. As architects, we are concerned with giving clients a place that is comfortable and enjoyable to live in ,,as well as beautiful. While everyones definition of beauty is subjective, basic elements of domestic life appear to have been neglected here: it's pretty clear the concept has taken over the project.
Maybe your basic elements of domestic life differ from the clients of this project, why make such assumptions? Japan has a totally different approach to domestic life if you hadn't noticed…
first of all, the building is intriguing,architecturally and structurally, and it successed in making people talk about it. and btw why everyone assume that everyone else prefere to have sex in a closed room,the question is not wether where they will be having sex, the questin is whether you want to watch
them doing that!!!
that's a safe society…!
Looks like a set from a Jacques Tati film.
I’ll be in Tokyo next week, anyone knows if it’s possible to visit this house?
i can only imagine
You almost expect a huge kid to plop down in front of it, and play with the Barbies inside.
Just had a lecture by Sou Fujimoto in Ghent, Belgium, and he said it is too open for him as well. But the owners really liked the idea of having a open space, cause they live in a very strolling way, using 1 space in many ways, depending on their needs and wishes. But Fujimoto added that the owner are also making curtains for the house, which are small pieces of art, which interact with the floating space of the tables in a very interesting way by not putting them just in front of the windows, but leaving a gap which gives the space new dimensions. He was really enthusiastic about this!
The curtains are regular white Japanese curtains from Muji. I just went to see it the other day.
With curtains gently blowing within the boxy static structures it will look great on a lazy summer day.
i love the japanese – totally crazy and 'out there' – and i love that their councils actually approve this kookiness!
Looks like a series of tables on top of each other.. If it's functional, no problem, it serves it purpose.. otherwise, it's just a bunch of crap.
I love new ideas. Here's an observation I haven't read about: COLOR. I visit a prison where the inmates are all dressed in white- all the time. When we visit them wearing colorful clothes, the inmates comment that they are starved for color in their lives. Another comment: ELDERLY PEOPLE. A lift or elevator might need to be added for the house to be used by all age groups. (I'm an old man!) I would like to see comments of people who have lived in the house for 6 months. Congratulations!