Residential and Commercial Building in Tokyo by Sasaki and Ytro

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The six-storey new building occupies a corner lot in the central, wealthy district of Shirokane. The structure that previously stood here housed the offices of a newspaper-delivery company. The roads in the area are somewhat broader than usual in Tokyo − which explains why every building erected here is visible from a distance.

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For the exposed location, Sasaki Architecture and Ytro Design Institute designed an enormous sculpture whose exposed-concrete façades seem to transition seamlessly into the grey-coated roof surfaces.

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Smaller areas, rather like gills, fold out of the façade − a purely formal means to visually direct our gaze around the corner building. The ground floor is home to a restaurant; each of the three levels above it is home to one single-room apartment and one two-room flat.

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In the larger apartments, the bedroom can be delimited from the living space with sliding walls. All units have been offered for rent. The very top of the building features a two-storey maisonette-style office that is currently used by Sasaki Architecture themselves. In principle this unit, with ceilings as high as 3,7 m, could also be repurposed as a flat.

© Takumi Ota Photography

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Various wall surfaces demonstrate the functions of the walls in this building. The exterior walls are insulated on the interior side and clad with plasterboard; however, on the walls of the access core and those that separate the apartments, the concrete surfaces remain visible.