XYYX Apartment (STELLA)

4-story housing complex constructed with combination of two types of housing unit.

When designing a housing complex, it is a typical formula to put all the housing units under the same conditions as much as possible. However, in this project, this formula applied only to units on the second and third floor. A passage which needed to be paved on the side of the building reduced the floor area of units on the first floor and restriction of daylight made it impossible to make bedroom or living room. Diagonal limit on the fourth floor reduced the volume of the building, thus increased dead space, and made it impossible to extend exterior stairs.

Considering such conditions, units on the first and fourth floor with simple, open and monotone interior compose maisonette with units on the second and third floor with brown tone relaxing interior. Units on the first floor which face the street can be used as SOHO. Units on the second and third floor are studio type apartment. Units on the fourth floor are airy and have a good view.

The direction of the units are turned 90 degrees depending on the environment of each floor. Units on the first floor are open to the side to avoid frontal road with a lot of traffic. Units on the second and third floor are open to frontal road to avoid adjacent buildings. Units on the fourth floor are open to the side as view is open over the roof of adjacent buildings. The units on each floor are stacked in X・Y・Y・X direction in coordinate system. Each floor in the same maisonette gives different impressions in terms of interior and direction.

Housing complex in a dense residential area faces difficult conditions. Surrounding environment makes it difficult to give same conditions for all the units. We proposed a solution by making the most of the conditions of the each floor and supplementing the advantage of each by combination of different floors. This is a housing complex which gives the tenants the liberty to choose the extra feature to the ordinary apartment.

– Akio Nakasa –