On a Hillside in Tokyo, These Homes Rise From the Rock
Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture creates a 12-unit residence in a quiet neighbourhood.
Tokyo is one of the biggest and most densely populated urban areas on Earth. As a result, architects, builders, and even residents must be innovative in the use of space, and often multiple residences are supported by a lot that would contain only one home in a North American or European city.
Such constraints were a prevalent part of the design process for Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture with this multihome project in the Meguro neighbourhood, a hilly, quiet section of the city that includes buildings from the Edo period, when Japan’s centre of power shifted from Kyoto to Tokyo, paving the way for the city of roughly 40 million people that exists today. The result, Escenario Hanabusayama, is a 12-unit building predominantly built from concrete that fits the area well.
Sasaki, inspired by the topography, created Escenario Hanabusayama with an exterior that hints at the striated layers of rock under the ground. The solid, square blocks of concrete have clear demarcating lines and fit together like sculpted boulders. The material itself also reflects the site, evoking a huge slab cut directly from the 10-metre cliff directly behind it.
Despite the heavy use of concrete, and the drab government buildings that may evoke for many of us, the inside is light and airy, with each unit benefiting from large windows and a freshness often missing from homes built into hillsides.
Instead of covering the concrete, Sasaki left the material remainsexposed throughout, almost as if the residents truly are living in a cliffside and have excavated the home. He aimed for an “architectural reinterpretation” of the Japanese gardening concept of shakkei, or “borrowed landscape,” in which distant views of mountains or lakes are framed to enhance the garden. In this spirit, each unit’s windows take advantage of the foliage and scenery in the area.
Escenario Hanabusayama shows us that even in the biggest cities on Earth, through focused and considered architecture, apartments and condos can be just as livable as any cabin or country retreat.
Photography by Takumi Ota Photography
