T – House

Toyo Ito – T House in Yutenji. Setagaya-ku, Tokyo Japan, 1997-1999

The house, located in the Setagaya district of Tokyo, is intended for a couple and their eldest son. Despite occupying a densely populated area, the site enjoys a pleasant view over the large garden of the residence to the side. The parents' room and the living room on the upper floor overlook this garden, that is towards the interior of the lot.
The clients, owners of a graphic design studio, wanted a house in which there was no separation between the spaces for private life and those intended for work.
The required functions are housed in a two-storey parallelepiped: the rooms develop around a double-height entrance hall, illuminated by large windows that extend from the floor to the ceiling. The entrance is almost at the center of one of the long sides of the rectangular plan and can be reached along a path that runs north of the main façade.
On the ground floor there are the two bedrooms, the services and the garage, while on the upper floor the living-dining room and the graphic workshop. At this level the designers wanted to create a unique space, which can be divided by sliding glass panels.
This technique, deriving from traditional Japanese architecture, allows to vary the quality and size of the spaces and gives the rooms a warm and diffused light.
The atelier is located in the area of ​​the house facing the street from which it is visually isolated through an opal glass window that solves the front on the road and allows the studio to receive sufficient light: only a small window allows the ventilation and the view on the around.
As for the materials, the load-bearing structure is made of reinforced concrete, the interior walls are plastered, the dividing panels made of wood and glass, the Japanese oak floors and the plywood ceilings.

Arch. Elena Zanoni
Blog: http://spazirarefatti.blogspot.com
Website / blog with the arch. Alice Sordelli: https://www.internoindaco.com