project lobby: Spatial conjuncture: Living container by Kentaro Yamazaki

Anything is possible, but not everything must come to be: the Unfinished House, which stands in the Japanese city of Kashiwa, presents a real challenge to its inhabitants. Four two-storey boxes are openly grouped around a central living area, allowing a generous amount of free space which can fulfil any desires based on content or design.

Architect: Yamazaki Kentaro Design Workshop, Tokyo / Shanghai
Location: Masuo, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Photo: Naoomi Kurozumi Architectural Photographic Office

On the ground floor, the container-like elements have taken on necessary functions, such as the foyer, kitchen, bathroom and a small home office. On the upper level, almost anything is possible, from a dressing room to a play corner for children. Long discussions with the architect, Kentaro Yamazaki, resulted in a living model based on unlimited openness and transparency, with the goal of making life flexible and thus strengthening family bonds. Whether this radical approach will meet its objective in practice remains to be seen. Either way, spoiled Central Europeans may see this experiment as a provocative statement against an ever-increasing per capita living space.

Photo: Naoomi Kurozumi Architectural Photographic Office

Ground floor: entrance (1), living / eating (2), kitchen (3), working (4), toilet (5), bath room (6), sleeping room (7). Diagram: Yamazaki Kentaro Design Workshop