Fujigaoka T is a home for a family of three in one unit of a twenty-six year old apartment building, by architecture and design studio sinato. Although the previous ceiling height was a uniform 2450mm, after checking the structural drawings we realized that the existing height was the minimum required due to the placement of a services pit above, with the slab actually much higher in places, so we proceeded in planning the layout considering this height. The overall plan is decided by the position of the high-ceiling areas.
As a result, in a part of the living space we were able to make another floor level, the bottom part a bedroom with 2000mm ceiling height and a free space with 1400mm ceiling height above that. The bedroom space below is divided by a wall formed between the new columns with both sleeping spaces open to the adjacent hall. In the hall, a common work desk and closet are provided, and are directly accessible from both bedrooms. The halves of the bedroom opening directly onto the adjacent hall is linked by this space, becoming one room, while the deeper half of the bedroom is fully separated into two rooms by the wall.
The free space above is also connected to the hall by an opening gap at foot-level. Deep in the elevated free space, the floor is interrupted before it joins the exterior wall, creating a small void for air movement from the window in the room below. We are hoping that the space connected by this strange shaped plan and section can function as an environment that accepts the various distances of the family’s everyday life.
Text © sinato | Photography © Toshiyuki Yano
