TANK wanted to create a more spacious and flexible layout in the compact Japanese apartment, which was previously divided by a narrow corridor into various cramped rooms.

"I considered that the room should have flexibility and the tenant can arrange it as she likes," explains the designer.

The team began by making the bathroom much larger and inserting sliding doors on both sides, enabling an extra route between the bedroom and the hallway.

The narrow entrance hall is designed as a "Doma" - a traditional Japanese entranceway - with a bare concrete floor that contrasts with the raised wooden flooring of the living area.

An exposed larch frame extends out beneath a raw concrete ceiling, while vertical batons combine with plywood sheets to form a screen dividing the bedroom from the living area.

The bedroom and adjacent closet are doorless, with walls and ceilings designed to look deliberately incomplete.

"There are no doors for the bedroom or walk-in closet," explains TANK. "The walls and ceiling have an unfinished look, I leave it to the tenant's taste as to how to utilise these rooms."

A clear glass lampshade houses a bare bulb that descends from the ceiling in the bedroom, casting long shadows from the wooden frame.

Other projects we've featured by TANK on Dezeen include an apartment with floors and ceilings covered in the same boards and a Tokyo apartment with removable patches of carpet to be used as flip flops.

See more Japanese houses on Dezeen, or see our Pinterest board filled with Japanese residences.

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by TANK appeared first on Dezeen.

The apartment hadn't been renovated since its construction and contained three traditional Japanese rooms lined with tatami mats. The renovation by nano Architects retains just one of these spaces, while the remaining two are converted into a split-level room with the sunken circle at its centre.

"The design concept is for the coexistence of two styles of different eras," said studio principal Yasuhiro Shinano. "I believe that the use of a Japanese-style room transplanted with a new design can be given a new value."

The architect installed a wooden platform around the edge of the room to create the central hollow, which has a contrasting concrete floor. Acid yellow panels wind like ribbons around the floor and ceiling, while a string curtain forms a see-through partition in between.

Four spherical pendant lights are suspended within the room, connected to a grid of cables that snake across the ceiling.

Other Japanese apartments featured on Dezeen include one where a wooden plank extends through three rooms and one where the floor was laid using timber from the ceiling. See more architecture in Japan.

Photography is by Yasunori Hidaka.

Read on for a project description from Yasuhiro Shinano:

The Times Transplantation Building

Abstract

Sanno apartment was completed in 1967. Since 1967, this room has not been renovated. This room has been renovated only after 45 years.

This room, which was completed in 1967, is a Japanese style. Re-sectioning part of the Japanese-style room, I transplanted the new style in 2012. The design concept is for the coexistence of two styles of different eras. My intention is to make the birth of the room with a new value. I believe that the use of a Japanese-style room transplanted with a new design can be given a new value.

The Times Transplantation

Loss of value of the space left behind the times. Cutting off a part of it and removed, transplanted and compound a different times there. This seems to like a surgical operation, but it is also like a plastic operation. These are classified by 3 parts of lifeline that is, first, "a drainage pipe, a service pipe, and a gas pipe" as vein, and "electric wire" as nerve, at last, that is "oil supply machines" as internal organs. To displace the broken lifeline and transplant new items.

Space left behind the times in 1967. Cutting an incision in the part of the interior that make up the surface like the skin. The same way as the fresh air is brought through the open door, the world of 2012 is transplanted into the world of 1967. It seemed as if value was lost in 1967 by remix of design effect that different times stand in line, new values like a new story were produced. Paralleling of the world of 1967 and 2012, different times and design are born as combination of different times of the space.

Architects: nano Architects
Location: Fukuoka, Japan
Designer: Yasuhiro Shinano
Area: 48 sqm
Year: 2012

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by nano Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Located in the Motoazabu area of the city, the apartment block has a rectilinear concrete structure that at a glance could be mistaken for an office building or car park.

"What we aimed to do with this structure was to create something that would blend with its surroundings and maintain absolute simplicity," explains architect Kiyonobu Nakagame.

Four diagonal supports raise the structure off the ground and create a sheltered car park on the lowest floor, while stairs climb the side of the building to lead into apartments on the first and second storeys.

Both residences have similar layouts, with kitchen worktops lining one wall and glazed bathrooms on the opposite side.

The diagonal step in the floor runs through the centre of each apartment, separating the kitchen and dining zones from the bedroom and study areas, while the staggered ceilings cut across them in the opposite direction.

Other concrete apartment blocks we've featured from Japan include a building with boxy balconies in Kyoto and one with indoor balconies in Tokyo. See more architecture in Japan.

Photography is by Shigeo Ogawa.

Here are a few words from Kiyonobu Nakagame:

Motoazabu Apartment sYms

Once known as a high-class residential area, Motoazabu is developing into more of a modern diversified metropolitan region resultant of the economic boom.

The neighborhood consists of skyscrapers like the famous Roppongi Hills development alongside smaller just as unique small developments. But within the chaotic big city life of this area you can still find tranquil quietness.

Above: concept diagram

What we aimed to do with this structure was to create something that would blend with its surroundings and maintain absolute simplicity. The true character of the building can be found on the inside. A structure consisting of four corner columns with a footprint of 6.8m x 7.8m comprising one room.

Above: ground floor plan

The design concept takes in a diagonal line of 450mm in room level difference which lends itself to create four distinct living areas all within a single space. The two different elevations of the floor combined with the two different ceiling heights lends itself to create four distinct living areas all within a single space.

Above: first floor plan

The office and living area take up the stage with views of the city and the bedroom space surrounded by post beams provides openness and a sense of privacy to modern city life in one room.

Design: 2011.01-2011.09
Construction period: 2011.10-2012.06

Above: section A

Structure: Reinforced Concrete
Number of floors: 3

Above: section B

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Kiyonobu Nakagame Architect & Associates appeared first on Dezeen.

The 16-storey Tour Bois-le-Prêtre, originally designed by French architect Raymond Lopez, contains 96 apartments in the northern outskirts of the city, but after 60 years of ageing and neglect the building needed a significant overhaul to bring the accommodation up to modern standards.

French architect Frédéric Druot teamed up with Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal of Lacaton & Vassal on the competition-winning redesign. Their renovation included extending the floorplates outwards to increase the size of rooms plus create new conservatories and balconies.

A facade of corrugated aluminium clads the new exterior of the tower, interspersed with large windows and glazed balconies. Floor-to-ceiling glass separates the apartments from the new terraces to let more natural light into each residence.

Architect Amanda Levete, on the Designs of the Year judging panel, described the project as "a clever and elegant solution" that is "far from the usual cosmetic approach that fools no-one". She added: "Completed at half the cost of demolition and new build, this is an exemplary lesson in harnessing clever thinking and ingenuity to transform neglected parts of our cities."

Tour Bois-le-Prêtre is one of the seven category winners of the Designs of the Year Awards, alongside a folding wheel and a medicine kit that can travel to developing countries in between Coca-Cola bottles. The overall winner is set to be announced later today.

Other renovated apartment blocks we've featured include a tower surrounded by ribbon-like balconies in the Netherlands. See more renovations on Dezeen.

Here are a few words from the architects and some project details in French:

The Bois-le-Prêtre Tower Metamorphosis

Conversion of 100 social dwellings, operation in occupied site and high environmental quality, 5 Bld du Bois le Prêtre, Paris 17ème

The project of metamorphosis of the "Bois Le Prêtre" Tower consists of a radical transformation of the conditions of comfort and habitability of the 100 residences of the occupied building. The tower built in 1962 by the architect Raymond Lopez, develops on 50m height, 16 levels serving each one 4 or 8 residences.

By addition of heated extensions, winter-gardens and balconies, the overall surface of origin of 8900m2 is carried to 12460m2. This new organisation of surfaces and the precise technical improvements make it possible to adapt the rental offer while meeting by the creation of new typologies the needs for the families, to return lime pit foot the access to all the residences, to reduce passively, the consumption of energies of more than 50%, mainly by the addition of the winter-gardens.

Maître d’ouvrage: PARIS HABITAT
Architecte mandataire: Frédéric Druot Architecture
Architectes associés: Anne Lacaton & Jean Philippe Vassal

Etudes Fluide: INEX
Etudes Structure: VP Green Economie : E2I
Acoustique: Gui Jourdan

Sécurité incendie et accessibilité: Vulcanéo
Pilote MOE: BATSCOP
Surface SHON: 12 460 m2 (dont 8900m2 existant)

Coût des travaux: 11,2 euros HT
Livraison (en cours): Octobre 2011
Missions: Mission de base + Diagnostic + Concertation
Spécificités: Travaux en site occupé Certification CERQAL HQE

Above: Tour Bois-le-Prêtre before the renovation

Above: typical floor plan - click for larger image

Above: long section - click for larger image

Above: cross section - click for larger image

Above: north elevation

Above: west elevation

Above: south elevation

Above: east elevation

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Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect David Hotson and interior designer Ghislaine Viñas collaborated on the renovation, which involved restructuring the uppermost storeys of a late nineteenth century tower in lower Manhattan to accommodate a family residence.

The movie shows how the rooms of the apartment are connected to one another with indoor balconies and a faceted stairwell, but that residents can also climb up one of the existing steel columns or glide down using the two-stage slide.

The apartment was completed earlier this year - see more images of Skyhouse in our earlier story or see more buildings with indoor slides.

The movie was produced by Build Pictures. Still photography is by David Hotson.

Architect: David Hotson
Interior design: Ghislaine Viñas
Construction: SilverLining Interiors

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and Ghislaine Viñas appeared first on Dezeen.